GF  PG 


^dlCALSf^5 


BS  2505  . J43  1923 
Jefferson,  Charles  Edward, 
1860-1937 

The  character  of  Paul 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/characterofpaul00jeff_0 


THE  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


BOOKS  BY  DR.  JEFFERSON 


Quiet  Talks  with  the  Family 

Quiet  Talks  with  Earnest  People 

Quiet  Hints  to  Growing  Preachers 

The  Minister  as  Prophet 

The  Minister  as  Shepherd 

Christianity  and  International  Peace 

Doctrine  and  Deed 

Things  Fundamental 

The  Character  of  Jesus 

The  New  Crusade 

Building  of  the  Church 

Why  We  May  Believe  in  Life  After  Death 

Talks  on  High  Themes 

The  Cause  of  the  War 

A  Fire  in  the  Snow 

The  Land  of  Enough 

An  Original  Year 

Congregationalism 

What  the  War  Is  Teaching 

Soldiers  of  the  Prince 

Fore-Fathers’  Day  Sermon 

Under  Twenty 

The  Friendship  Indispensable 
The  Character  of  Paul 


THE 


CHARACTER  OF 


BY 


CHARLES  EDWARD  JEFFERSON 


PASTOR  OF  BROADWAY  TABERNACLE 
NEW  YORK  CITY 


gotfc 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 


1923 

All  rights  reserved 


PRINTED  IN  TIIE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA, 


Copyright,  1923, 

By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.  Published  December,  1923 


INTRODUCTION 


This  is  a  book  of  sermons,  although  the  ser¬ 
mons  have  never  been  preached.  I  find  that  my 
mind,  as  I  grow  older,  can  create  more  sermons 
than  it  is  possible  for  me  to  preach.  Ever  since 
the  appearance  of  my  volume  of  sermons  on  “The 
Character  of  Jesus”  some  fifteen  years  ago,  it  has 
been  my  intention  to  publish,  sometime,  a  com¬ 
panion  volume  on  “The  Character  of  Paul.”  For 
over  thirty  years,  Paul  has  been  one  of  my  fa¬ 
vorite  heroes.  Through  all  that  time,  I  have  lived 
with  him  almost  constantly.  For  thirteen  years 
of  my  life,  I  made  it  my  practice  each  succeeding 
year  to  carry  away  with  me  for  the  summer  one 
of  his  letters  and  make  it  my  special  study. 
Through  my  vacation  months  he  was  my  daily 
companion.  I  read  the  letter  again  and  again.  I 
read  everything  of  value  on  the  letter  which  I 
could  find,  meditated  on  its  contents,  pondered  the 
problems  it  suggested,  communed  with  the  spirit 
of  the  man  who  wrote  it,  prepared  a  sermon  on  it, 
and  finally  made  out  a  list  of  a  hundred  questions 
for  the  assistance  of  my  people  in  their  study  of 
it  through  the  following  year.  In  this  way  Paul 
became  to  me  more  and  more  a  living  man.  I 


VI 


INTRODUCTION 


feel  I  know  him  better  than  I  know  any  other  man 
who  ever  lived.  I  began  these  chapters  in  the 
year  1916,  but  the  great  War  then  in  progress  was 
distracting,  and  since  the  war,  the  pressure  of  my 
work  has  made  it  impossible  till  now  to  carry  out 
my  purpose.  I  now  at  last  have  given  shape  to 
material  which  for  several  years  has  been  lying  in 
my  mind.  I  have  written  for  preachers,  that  they 
may  be  quickened  to  speak  of  Paul  more  fre¬ 
quently  to  their  people,  and  also  for  laymen  that 
they  may  be  encouraged  to  study  Paul’s  letters  for 
themselves,  and  find  in  him  an  unfailing  source 
of  strength  and  gladness. 


September  1,  1923. 


CONTENTS 


Introduction 


PAGE 

v 


CHAPTER 


I. 

The  Man  . 

• 

• 

i 

II. 

What  We  Know 

AND 

What  We 

Do  Not  Know 

1*1 

• 

15 

III. 

His  Limitations 

• 

• 

29 

IV. 

As  Seen  by  His 

Contemporaries 

43 

V. 

His  Sincerity  . 

• 

• 

5  7 

VI. 

His  Sanity 

• 

• 

73 

VII. 

His  Weakness  . 

• 

• 

87 

VIII. 

His  Strength  . 

• 

• 

101 

IX. 

His  Pride  . 

• 

• 

117 

X. 

His  Humility  . 

• 

• 

133 

XI. 

His  Vehemence 

• 

• 

147 

XII. 

His  Patience  . 

• 

• 

159 

XIII. 

His  Courage 

• 

• 

173 

XIV. 

His  Courtesy 

• 

• 

187 

XV. 

His  Indignation 

• 

• 

201 

XVI. 

His  Tenderness 

• 

. 

215 

XVII. 

His  Breadth  and 

Narrowness 

• 

229 

XVIII. 

His  Sympathy  . 

• 

• 

• 

• 

245 

Vll 


Vlll 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 

XIX. 

His  Thankfulness  . 

DACE 

.  259 

XX. 

His  Joyfulness 

•  •  275 

XXI. 

His  Trustfulness  . 

.  291 

XXII. 

His  Hopefulness 

.  307 

XXIII. 

His  Love 

.  321 

XXIV. 

His  Religiousness  . 

•  337 

XXV. 

His  Lovableness 

•  353 

XXVI. 

His  Greatness  . 

.  367 

I 

THE  MAN 


I 


THE  MAN 

I  purpose  to  paint  the  portrait  of  Paul.  It  is 
not  my  aim  to  tell  the  story  of  his  life,  but  to 
sketch  the  features  of  his  soul.  I  am  not  con¬ 
cerned  just  now  with  his  ideas  but  with  his  dis¬ 
position,  not  with  his  doctrines  but  with  his  habit¬ 
ual  moods,  not  with  his  system  of  thought  but 
with  his  character.  Character  is  a  medium  of 
revelation.  We  err  when  we  imagine  that  Deity 
can  speak  to  men  only  through  the  operation  of 
the  intellect.  God  speaks  also  through  human  con¬ 
duct.  Moral  traits  are  an  organ  through  which 
the  Eternal  discloses  his  character  and  purpose. 
We  learn  what  heaven  would  have  of  us  by  what 
great  men  do  and  suffer.  It  is  the  personality  of 
_ ;  Paul  and  not  his  theology  with  which  we  in  these 
chapters  have  to  do.  What  Jesus  said  to  men 
when  he  faced  them  in  his  highest  mood  was  not 
“Believe  this”  or  “Accept  that,”  but  “Follow  me!” 
And  Paul  when  he  was  at  his  highest,  did  not 
press  upon  men  a  theory  of  the  fall  of  man,  or  an 
exposition  of  the  death  of  Jesus,  but  poured  out 
his  soul  in  the  fervent  exhortation,  “I  beseech  you 

3 


4 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


be  ye  imitators  of  me.”  “Be  ye  imitators  of  me, 
even  as  also  I  am  of  Christ.”  “The  things  which 
ye  both  learned  and  received  and  heard  and  saw 
in  me,  these  things  do.”  We  commonly  speak  of 
the  Epistles  of  Paul,  but  Paul  himself  is  an  Epis¬ 
tle,  and  ought  to  be  known  and  read  of  all  men. 

But  Paul  is  little  known.  The  average  Chris¬ 
tian  is  not  acquainted  with  him.  He  is  a  name  in 
a  book,  but  not  a  living  man.  He  is  a  shadow 
flitting  to  and  fro  in  the  pale  realms  of  theological 
discussion,  but  he  has  no  blood  in  him.  He  is  a 
statue  on  a  pedestal,  but  not  a  helper  of  men  in 
their  daily  needs.  He  is  remote  from  the  Chris¬ 
tian  heart.  He  is  not  so  popular  as  Gideon  and 
David,  he  is  not  so  well  liked  as  Peter  and  John. 
He  could  be  the  best  known  of  all  the  Apostles, 
for  we  have  more  information  concerning  him 
than  of  any  of  the  rest  of  them,  but  he  remains 
almost  a  stranger  to  us.  He  could  be  better 
known  to  us  than  any  other  man  of  antiquity  ex¬ 
cept  Cicero,  if  we  would  only  make  diligent  use 
of  the  sources  of  knowledge  within  our  reach.  He 
has  much  to  give  us,  but  alas  we  do  not  know 
him. 

For  this,  the  scholars  are  in  part  to  blame. 
They  have  so  hedged  the  Apostle  in  by  piles  of 
learned  rubbish  that  a  layman  can  hardly  get  at 
him.  Thousands  of  books  have  been  written  about 
Paul,  and  most  of  them  are  learned.  It  seems 
well-nigh  impossible  to  write  about  him  without 


THE  MAN 


5 


weighting  the  book  down  with  erudition.  By  a 
learned  book,  I  mean  a  book  with  a  long  preface 
containing  an  extended  list  of  authorities  con¬ 
sulted,  with  footnotes  at  the  bottom  of  every 
page,  with  quotations  from  many  quarters  woven 
into  the  body  of  the  text,  with  frequent  refer¬ 
ences  to  volumes  which  the  ordinary  mortal  has 
never  heard  of,  with  constant  allusions  to  vari¬ 
ous  mysterious  things  which  render  Paul  still 
more  of  an  enigma,  with  an  excursus  at  the  end  of 
every  chapter  into  which  has  been  mopped  up  the 
overflow  of  critical  ingenuity,  and  with  a  series  of 
appendices  at  the  end  of  the  book  dealing  with 
disputed  points  and  setting  forth  clashing  inter¬ 
pretations.  This  is  the  kind  of  book  which  one 
has  come  to  expect  when  he  takes  up  a  volume  on 
Paul. 

It  seems  impossible  to  write  about  him  without 
becoming  philosophical.  No  matter  who  the 
writer  is,  he  is  almost  sure  to  discuss  Paul’s  rank 
in  the  history  of  religion,  or  in  the  evolution  of 
Christianity,  or  if  he  does  not  do  this,  he  will 
discuss  Paul’s  relation  to  Judaism  or  Pharisaism 
or  Gnosticism  or  Mysticism  or  Stoicism,  or  Neo¬ 
platonism,  or  if  he  does  not  do  this,  he  will  write 
voluminously  on  “Paulinism.”  It  is  far  easier 
evidently  to  write  on  Paulinism  than  on  Paul. 
Even  the  biographers  of  Paul  became  so  learnedly 
prolix  that  the  average  reader  can  do  little  with 
them.  Instead  of  writing  about  Paul  they  fill 


6 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


their  pages  with  descriptions  of  the  countries 
through  which  he  traveled,  and  with  the  history 
of  the  cities  in  which  he  preached.  They  start 
with  Paul,  but  immediately  glide  into  geography 
or  archeology  or  paleontology,  in  whose  depths  the 
ordinary  reader  is  overwhelmed.  What  space  is 
left  is  devoted  to  the  exegesis  of  the  letters,  and 
to  problems  of  chronology,  and  to  questions  of 
authenticity  and  glosses  and  redactions,  so  that 
one  comes  away  from  the  reading  of  a  Life  of 
Paul  exhausted. 

There  was  a  certain  coppersmith  in  the  first 
century  who  did  Paul  much  evil.  In  the  19th 
and  20th  centuries  it  is  not  the  coppersmiths  who 
have  wrought  the  mischief,  but  the  learned  spe¬ 
cialists  and  the  erudite  experts  and  the  scholarly 
commentators  and  the  ingenious  theologians. 
These  men  have  covered  him  over  with  such  a 
mass  of  interpretation  and  speculation  and  mul¬ 
tifarious  learning,  that  the  average  man  cannot 
find  him.  Paul  has  become  the  specialty  of  the 
scholars,  and  not  the  hero  of  the  common  people. 

And  so  I  am  determined  not  to  be  learned, 
although  I  am  immensely  indebted  to  the  patient 
and  laborious  investigations  of  scores  of  special¬ 
ists  and  scholars,  without  whose  assistance  this 
book  could  never  have  been  written.  I  do  not 
write  of  Paul  the  Theologian,  or  Paul  the  Phil¬ 
osopher,  or  Paul  the  Metaphysician,  or  Paul  the 
Logician,  or  Paul  the  Mystic,  or  Paul  the  Roman 


THE  MAN 


7 


Citizen,  or  Paul  the  Traveler,  or  Paul  the  Orator, 
or  Paul  the  Ecclesiastic,  or  Paul  the  Statesman, 
or  Paul  the  Missionary,  or  Paul  the  Apostle, 
or  Paul  the  Pastor  and  Teacher,  but  Paul  the 
Man.  I  do  not  write  even  of  “Saint  Paul.”  Let 
us  for  a  time  drop  the  word  “Saint.”  It  is  to 
some  a  repellent  word — a  sort  of  verbal  veil  over 
the  face  of  the  man  who  wears  it.  It  digs  a  gulf 
between  the  man  who  has  it,  and  the  man  who 
knows  that  he  has  no  claim  to  sainthood.  Let 
us  sweep  away  the  barriers  and  get  rid  of  all  the 
chasms.  My  aim  is  to  bring  Paul  near.  My 
desire  is  to  bring  him  so  near  that  you  can  feel  his 
heart-beat,  and  hear  him  breathe. 

Because  Paul  is  not  known,  he  is  not  liked.  To 
like  a  man  we  must  know  him.  It  is  the  men  we 
love  who  help  us  most.  If  Paul  does  not  help 
us,  it  is  because  we  do  not  love  him.  We  rever¬ 
ence  him,  some  of  us,  but  we  do  not  give  him  our 
heart.  Some  of  us  dislike  him  because  we  mis¬ 
understand  him.  It  is  our  ignorance  which  builds 
barriers  between  him  and  us.  Some  of  us  became 
prejudiced  against  him  in  childhood.  The  dullest 
book  in  the  house  was  a  book  on  the  Doctrines 
of  Paul.  The  dryest  of  all  the  Pastor’s  sermons 
were  connected  with  Paul.  When  we  dipped  into 
his  letters  we  liked  him  still  less,  for  we  found 
such  words  as  foreordination  and  predestination 
and  justification  and  sanctification  and  edification 
and  damnation.  Who  could  win  the  heart  of  a 


8 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


child  with  such  a  vocabulary  as  that?  To  many 
a  child,  Paul  is  a  sort  of  holy  ogre,  dwelling  in 
a  world  into  which  children  cannot  go.  When 
we  grew  older  we  liked  him  still  less,  for  we 
found  out  that  he  returned  a  runaway  slave,  and 
commanded  women  to  keep  still  in  church  meet¬ 
ings.  He  seemed  to  be  the  friend  of  slave  owners, 
and  the  enemy  of  the  rights  of  woman.  Later 
on  his  name  became  a  synonym  of  theological 
bigotry  and  rancor.  It  suggested  controversy  and 
things  hard  to  understand.  We  discovered  on 
reading  history  that  this  man’s  words  have  been 
in  every  generation  food  for  the  fanatic,  and  a 
battle  ax  in  the  hands  of  tyrants.  Theologians 
have  used  his  letters  as  an  arsenal  from  which 
they  have  snatched  weapons  to  beat  down  their 
opponents.  And  thus  his  name  came  to  have  the 
odor  of  bigotry  and  the  tang  of  despotism.  It 
was  linked  in  our  mind  with  the  tragedy  of  dogma 
and  the  fury  of  theological  debate.  We  held  him 
accountable  for  all  that  the  tyrants  quoting  his 
words  have  attempted,  and  for  all  that  the  bigots 
relying  on  his  authority  have  done.  He  was  re¬ 
sponsible — SO'  it  seemed  to  us — for  not  a  little  of 
the  confusion  and  bitterness  which  have  plagued 
and  disgraced  the  Christian  Church. 

This  estimate  of  the  man  was  due  to  our  lim¬ 
ited  knowledge.  We  judged  him  largely  by  hear¬ 
say,  and  did  not  go  straight  to  the  man  himself. 
To  a  great  part  of  the  Western  World,  Paul  is 


THE  MAN 


9 


known  chiefly  through  John  Calvin,  and  it  must 
be  confessed  that  the  Calvinized  Paul  is  far  from 
lovable.  If  you  would  ever  understand  Paul, 
then  close  Calvin’s  Institutes,  and  open  your  New 
Testament.  When  Renan  said  that  the  reign  of 
Paul  is  coming  to  an  end,  he  referred  to  the  Paul 
of  John  Calvin.  The  French  Scholar  was  right. 
The  reign  of  the  Calvinized  Paul  is  indeed  coming 
to  an  end.  The  Calvinistic  interpretation  of  the 
Christian  religion  is  outgrown.  It  is  not  true  to 
the  fundamental  conceptions  either  of  Jesus  or 
Paul.  Its  final  disappearance  is  certain.  But  the 
reign  of  the  Paul  of  the  New  Testament  is  not 
coming  to  an  end.  It  is  just  beginning.  The 
reign  of  Paul  the  Theologian,  who  appears  in  the 
pages  of  Calvinistic  theologians  is  ending,  but  the 
reign  of  the  Paul  who  wrote  the  letter  to  the 
Philippians  is  just  dawning.  Paul  the  man  is  now 
for  the  first  time  coming  to  his  own.  He  has 
been  through  all  the  centuries  the  unknown  Apos¬ 
tle.  The  coming  generation  will  do  him  a  jus¬ 
tice  hitherto  denied  him.  “Back  to  Jesus”  was  a 
slogan  which  rang  clear  and  strong  across  the 
19th  century  world.  “Back  to  Paul”  is  a  cry 
which  will  go  sounding  through  the  century  in 
which  we  are  now  living.  We  must  get  back  of 
the  commentators,  and  back  of  the  exegetes,  back 
of  the  theologians  of  every  school,  back  of  John 
Wesley  and  John  Calvin  and  John  Knox,  back 
of  Augustine  and  the  early  fathers,  back  to  Paul 


IO 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


himself.  He  is  his  own  best  interpreter.  We 
must  read  his  doctrines  in  the  light  of  his  life. 
We  must  interpret  his  theology  with  our  eye  on 
his  character.  In  him  the  Spirit  of  Christ  was 
incarnate  in  an  extraordinary  degree.  The  life 
of  the  Son  of  God  was  made  manifest  in  his  flesh. 
He  supplements  in  his  afflictions — as  he  himself 
asserts — the  sufferings  of  the  world’s  Savior,  and 
he  also  supplements  in  his  attitude  and  disposi¬ 
tion,  his  outlook  and  spirit,  Christ’s  revelation  of 
God.  The  New  Testament  holds  before  our  eyes 
the  figures  of  two  men — Jesus  and  Paul.  Other 
men  are  there,  but  they  are  all  in  the  background. 
At  the  center  of  the  picture  stands  Jesus  the 
Messiah,  the  Son  of  the  Living  God,  and  near 
him  stands  the  man  who  above  all  others  had  the 
character  of  the  Son  in  whom  God  is  well  pleased. 

It  is  one  of  the  tragedies  of  history  that  this 
man  is  not  better  known.  We  need  him.  The 
world  has  grown  weary  of  dogmas  and  creeds. 
It  has  no  inclination  today  to  listen  to  anyone 
who  discusses  foreknowledge  and  predestination 
or  the  Man  of  Sin.  It  craves  manhood.  It  prizes 
character.  Men  are  everywhere  bewildered  and 
discouraged  and  disillusioned.  They  need  the 
vision  of  a  man  who  struggled  and  suffered  and 
conquered.  Many  are  despondent  and  cynical. 
They  cry — “Who  will  show  us  any  good  ?”  They 
need  the  light  of  the  countenance  of  a  man  who 
was  dedicated  to  goodness.  The  modern  mind 


THE  MAN 


II 


is  skeptical  as  to  the  power  of  the  Christian  re¬ 
ligion.  It  concedes  that  the  principles  of  Jesus 
are  beautiful,  but  it  is  not  sure  that  his  way  of 
life  is  practicable.  It  insists  that  human  nature 
is  human  nature,  and  that  it  cannot  be  changed, 
that  men  must  always  be  essentially  what  they 
have  been  and  still  are.  We  need  to  keep  before 
us  a  specimen  of  human  nature  in  which  the  spirit 
of  Christ  has  done  a  conspicuously  victorious 
work.  We  need  an  arresting  example  of  what 
is  possible  under  the  sway  of  Christian  ideals. 
Paul  is  an  answer  to  the  sneer  that  a  man  can¬ 
not  be  radically  changed.  He  is  an  uncontestable 
proof  that  what  Christ  promised  can  be  fulfilled. 
The  whole  church  would  be  quickened  and  ener¬ 
gized  if  only  this  man  should  become  a  living 
force  in  the  brain  and  heart  of  professing  Chris¬ 
tians.  Our  whole  civilization  would  receive  a 
fresh  impetus  and  brighter  tone  if  it  should  come 
into  closer  contact  with  this  spiritual  dynamo,  this 
man  who  found  by  experience  that  lie  could  do 
all  things  through  Christ. 

How  then  can  we  know  him?  We  can  know 
him  through  the  Book  of  the  Acts  and  through 
his  thirteen  Epistles.  These  do  not  give  us 
enough  to  write  his  life,  but  they  furnish  suffi¬ 
cient  data  for  us  to  know  his  soul.  How  shall 
we  begin?  Much  depends  on  the  beginning. 
Many  have  started,  but  soon  stopped  because 
they  did  not  begin  at  the  right  place.  They  be- 


12 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


gan  with  the  letter  to  the  Romans,  the  worst  pos¬ 
sible  point  to  begin  if  one  wants  to  make  Paul’s 
acquaintance.  The  letter  to  the  Romans  stands 
at  the  head  of  the  Pauline  letters,  because  it  is 
the  longest  and  because  it  was  written  to  the 
Church  in  the  world’s  metropolis.  But  it  is  the 
last  letter  which  any  one  ought  to  read.  One 
should  begin  with  the  letter  at  the  bottom  of  the 
list — the  letter  to  Philemon.  It  is  only  a  note 
written  to  an  intimate  friend  on  a  delicate  matter, 
and  is  therefore  peculiarly  revealing.  If  you  are 
interested  in  Paulinism,  read  Romans.  If  you 
would  know  Paul  read  Philemon.  After  Phile¬ 
mon  read  Philippians,  a  letter  written  to  a  group 
of  friends — his  first  European  converts.  It  over¬ 
flows  with  affection.  It  drips  with  feeling.  Its 
abandon  is  delightful,  its  naivete  is  bewitching. 
When  you  read  this  letter  you  know  you  are 
in  the  presence  of  a  gentleman.  After  Philip¬ 
pians,  read  his  second  letter  to  the  Corinthians, 
the  most  autobiographic  of  all  Paul’s  letters.  It 
is  crammed  with  information  concerning  the 
Apostle’s  life,  and  in  it  he  lays  bare  his  heart 
in  a  way  which  is  unparalleled  elsewhere  in  Scrip¬ 
ture.  He  is  defending  himself  against  the  unjust 
and  cruel  accusations  of  his  enemies.  He  writhes 
in  agony,  and  in  his  anguish  he  says  things  which 
only  an  innocent  man  in  torture  would  dare  to 
utter.  In  Philippians  Paul  reveals  himself  to  his 
friends,  in  Second  Corinthians  he  reveals  him- 


THE  MAN 


i3 


self  to  his  foes.  These  two  pictures  should  hang 
side  by  side  in  the  gallery  of  our  memory.  Next 
read  his  Second  letter  to  Timothy.  This  is  the 
last  of  his  letters  which  have  been  preserved.  It 
was  written  in  prison,  with  the  prospect  of  death 
staring  him  in  the  face,  to  the  man  who  was  the 
dearest  to  him  of  any  person  in  the  world,  so 
near  that  he  seemed  more  like  a  son  than  a  friend. 
If  we  would  know  the  inmost  soul  of  Paul,  we 
must  not  neglect  his  second  letter  to  his  son. 
These  four  constitute  the  great  Pauline  quadri¬ 
lateral.  After  you  have  read  these  four  letters 
again  and  again,  you  will  be  ready  to  read  the 
account  of  Paul’s  doings  given  by  his  friend  Luke. 
The  last  twenty  chapters  of  the  Book  of  the  Acts, 
with  the  exception  of  chapters  ten,  eleven,  and 
twelve,  are  almost  exclusively  devoted  to  a  series 
of  pictures  setting  forth  experiences  of  Paul.  The 
story  is  compressed  and  there  are  many  gaps,  but 
the  writer  sometimes  by  a  single  sentence  lights  up 
Paul  as  by  a  flash  of  lightning.  For  an  instant 
he  stands  before  us  startlingly  vivid,  and  we  see 
as  in  the  light  of  heaven  what  manner  of  man  he 
was.  After  repeated  readings  of  the  Book  of 
the  Acts,  let  the  student  read  Galatians  and  then 
I  Timothy  and  then  Titus,  and  then  I  Corinthians. 
The  remaining  five  letters — I  and  II  Thessaloni- 
ans,  Ephesians,  Colossians,  and  Romans  can  be 
reserved  for  the  last.  All  thirteen  letters  are 
trustworthy.  You  can  depend  upon  them  to  the 


14 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


utmost.  We  shall  not  waste  any  time  on  alleged 
discrepancies,  and  contradictions,  on  variations 
and  dissimilarities,  nor  shall  we  vex  ourselves 
with  the  controversies  over  his  style,  nor  shall 
we  turn  aside  to  puzzle  our  heads  over  ques¬ 
tions  of  chronology,  nor  shall  we  weary  our¬ 
selves  with  wrestling  with  the  score  of  different 
interpretations  which  have  been  placed  upon 
nearly  every  line  which  Paul  ever  wrote.  None 
of  these  things  are  of  interest  to  us  in  our  quest. 
We  want  to  know  Paul,  and  the  power  of  his 
victorious  life,  and  the  fellowship  of  his  suffer¬ 
ings,  that  we  also  like  him  may  lay  hold  on  that 
for  which  also  we  were  laid  hold  on  by  Christ 
Jesus 


WHAT  WE  KNOW  AND  WHAT  WE 
DO  NOT  KNOW 


II 


WHAT  WE  KNOW  AND  WHAT  WE 
DO  NOT  KNOW 

It  is  one  thing  to  know  and  another  thing  not 
to  know,  and  the  distinction  between  them  should 
be  kept  sharp  and  vivid.  Our  ignorance  has  a 
fashion  of  slipping  down  into  the  realm  of  our 
knowledge  and  becoming  confounded  with  it.  If 
we  think  we  know  what  we  do  not  know,  we  de¬ 
ceive  ourselves  and  become  muddled  in  our  think¬ 
ing.  The  world  is  full  of  confusion  because  men 
persist  in  jumbling  facts  and  fancies. 

When  men  do  not  know  what  they  desire  to 
know  and  cannot  know,  they  seek  relief  in  con¬ 
jecture.  A  large  part  of  the  alleged  knowledge 
of  the  world  is  surmise  and  speculation.  In  try¬ 
ing  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  Paul,  we  must 
rigorously  separate  what  we  know  from  what 
men  have  guessed.  Conjectures  are  sometimes 
innocent  and  sometimes  they  are  mischievous. 
Some  conjectures  do  not  warp  the  mind  or  darken 
the  heart,  other  conjectures  set  the  mind  on  a 
wrong  track  and  so  prejudice  the  heart  that  it 
becomes  impossible  to  arrive  at  a  fair  conclusion. 


1 7 


1 8  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

We  must  be  constantly  on  our  guard  against  these 
disturbing  and  damaging  conjectures.  When,  for 
instance,  Renan  speaks  of  Paul  as  an  “ugly  little 
Jew/’  he  is  guessing.  He  did  not  know  that 
Paul  was  little,  nor  did  he  know  that  he  was  ugly. 
Nobody  knows  that.  Nobody  can  ever  know. 
Renan  was  a  scholar  of  distinction,  and  there¬ 
fore,  like  many  another  scholar,  he  took  liber¬ 
ties.  He  was  not  careful  to  confine  himself  to 
demonstrated  truth.  He  wove  his  imagination 
into  all  he  wrote.  He  did  not  like  Paul,  and  so 
he  called  him  “little  and  ugly.”  In  that  way  he 
knew  he  would  induce  others  to  dislike  him  also. 

Others  have  guessed  that  Paul  was  little,  and 
they  have  based  their  guesses  on  the  fact  that  the 
people  of  Lystra  took  him  for  the  god  Mer¬ 
cury.  But  Luke  is  careful  to  tell  us  why  they 
took  Paul  for  that  god.  It  was  because  he  was 
the  chief  speaker.  They  were  not  thinking  of 
the  size  of  the  man,  but  of  the  power  of  his 
tongue.  It  is  commonly  assumed  that  Barnabas 
was  large  and  majestic,  because  he  was  taken  for 
Jupiter.  But  it  may  be  that  it  was  because  he 
looked  wise  and  said  nothing. 

Another  reason  for  thinking  Paul  was  little  is 
the  remark  of  his  enemies  in  Corinth — “His  bod¬ 
ily  presence  is  weak.”  But  this  does  not  neces¬ 
sarily  apply  to  his  stature.  A  tall  man  might  be 
weak  in  the  way  the  Corinthians  suggested,  even 
though  he  weighed  two  hundred  pounds.  Paul’s 


WHAT  WE  DO  AND  DO  NOT  KNOW 


enemies  were  twitting  him  on  the  fact  that  at  a 
distance  he  could  roar  like  a  lion,  but  that  when 
he  was  close  at  hand  he  was  as  harmless  as  a 
lamb.  Both  his  physique  and  his  speech  were 
impotent,  when  he  came  to  deal  with  men  face  to 
face.  So  they  said.  It  is  not  safe  to  build  a  large 
conclusion  on  the  taunt  of  a  man’s  foes,  espe¬ 
cially  when  we  cannot  be  sure  of  what  the  taunt 
really  means.  The  Corinthian  slanderers  were 
probably  thinking  of  his  personality  and  not  of 
his  body  at  all. 

A  third  reason  for  conjecturing  that  Paul  was 
little  is  a  novel  written  in  the  second  or  third 
century,  entitled  “Acts  of  Paul  and  Thekla.”  In 
this  tale  there  is  a  pen  portrait  of  Paul,  the  only 
early  one  in  existence.  This  portrait  makes  him 
“small  in  size,  with  meeting  eyebrows,  with  a 
rather  large  nose,  baldheaded,  bow-legged, 
strongly  built,  full  of  grace,  for  at  times  he  looked 
like  a  man,  and  at  times  he  had  the  face  of  an 
angel.”  This  is  interesting  but  not  reliable.  A 
story  written  two  or  three  hundred  years  after  a 
man’s  death  is  hardly  a  safe  source  from  which 
to  draw  material  concerning  his  personal  appear¬ 
ance.  If  Paul  looked  as  this  novel  says  he  looked, 
it  is  surprising  that  the  Lystrians  took  him  for  a 
god,  for  the  Greek  gods  were  all  graceful  and 
well  formed.  Imagine  a  bow-legged  god ! 

Let  us  face  the  fact.  We  know  nothing  at  all 
of  Paul’s  appearance.  No  one  in  the  first  cen- 


20 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


tury  sketched  him  with  pen  or  painted  him  with 
brush.  Later  generations  painted  him,  but  their 
work  is  the  work  of  the  imagination.  You  can 
think  of  him  therefore  as  you  wish.  Raphael 
painting  him  on  Mars’  Hill,  made  him  a  man  of 
commanding  presence.  Why  not?  The  right  to 
guess  is  one  of  the  inalienable  rights  with  which 
all  men  are  endowed. 

We  know  Paul  had  a  physical  malady.  He  calls 
it  “a  thorn  in  the  flesh.”  What  it  was,  nobody 
knows,  and  nobody  will  ever  know.  For  nearly 
two  thousand  years  men  have  been  guessing  as 
to  the  nature  of  the  thorn,  and  they  will  no  doubt 
keep  on  guessing  to  the  end  of  time.  The  list  of 
guesses  is  imposing:  Epilepsy,  ophthalmia,  head¬ 
ache,  toothache,  stones,  hemorrhoids,  melancholia, 
leprosy,  neurasthenia,  malarial  fever,  hysteria, 
and  many  others.  In  certain  quarters  it  is  as¬ 
sumed  that  his  ailment  was  epilepsy,  and  this  is 
promulgated  by  learned  men  and  erudite  physi¬ 
cians  as  a  fact.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  nothing 
but  a  guess,  and  a  stupid  guess  at  that.  Medical 
men  often  guess — and  badly.  If  Paul  had  epi¬ 
lepsy,  it  was  a  unique  form  of  that  disease,  and 
it  is  a  pity  the  world  has  not  more  epileptics  of 
Paul’s  particular  species.  It  is  easy  to  say  that 
a  man  was  an  epileptic  after  he  has  been  in  his 
grave  several  hundred  years.  It  is  often  asserted 
that  Julius  Caesar  and  Mohammed  and  Charles 
V.  and  Cromwell  and  Napoleon  I.  were  all  epi- 


> 


WHAT  WE  DO  AND  DO  NOT  KNOW 


21 


leptics,  but  there  is  no  solid  ground  for  any  such 
assertion.  There  is  no  satisfactory  reason  for 
thinking  that  any  one  of  those  men  was  an  epi¬ 
leptic.  It  is  one  of  those  speculations  which  are 
repeated  so  many  times  that  the  world  comes  at 
last  to  accept  them  as  established  facts.  If  Paul 
was  an  epileptic,  then  his  vision  near  the  Damas¬ 
cus  gate  was  a  delusion,  and  thus  we  can  get  rid 
of  one  of  the  most  formidable  witnesses  for  the 
truth  of  the  Christian  religion.  But  Paul’s  epi¬ 
lepsy  is  a  guess.  Christianity  will  never  be  de¬ 
molished  by  a  guess. 

It  is  also  a  guess  that  Paul  was  a  chronic  in¬ 
valid.  Benjamin  Jowett  was  a  scholar,  but  he  did 
not  know  enough  to  warrant  him  in  picturing 
Paul  as  “a  poor  decrepit  being  afflicted  perhaps 
with  palsy,  the  creature,  as  he  seemed  to  spec¬ 
tators,  of  nervous  sensibility.”  This  is  mere 
fancy,  and  can  be  pushed  aside  as  both  imperti¬ 
nent  and  worthless.  The  man  who  could  endure 
the  hardships  and  tribulations  described  in  the 
Second  Letter  to  the  Corinthians  was  no  puny, 
shambling  invalid,  but  a  man  of  extraordinary 
physical  equipment,  endowed  with  amazing  pow¬ 
ers  of  bodily  endurance,  a  Christian  Samson,  giv¬ 
ing  exhibition  of  physical  stamina  unique  in  the 
annals  of  mankind.  Compute  the  number  of 
miles  he  traveled,  and  take  into  account  the  char¬ 
acter  of  the  roads,  the  nature  of  the  regions 
through  which  he  made  his  way,  the  dangers  and 


22 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


fatigue  and  privations  inseparable  from  travel 
in  the  first  century,  and  you  must  feel  you  are 
standing  in  the  presence  of  a  Hercules,  one  of  the 
toughest  fibered  heroes  of  our  race. 

It  is  claimed  that  Paul  had  sore  eyes.  There 
are  only  two  reasons  for  suspecting  he  had  any¬ 
thing  the  matter  with  his  eyes.  One  is  that  he 
did  not  recognize  the  High  Priest  at  the  trial  at 
which  that  dignitary  ordered  a  bystander  to  strike 
Paul  on  the  mouth,  and  the  second,  the  remark  of 
Paul  in  his  letter  to  the  Galatians  that  “If  possible 
ye  would  have  plucked  out  your  eyes  and  given 
them  to  me.”  The  first  incident  proves  nothing. 
A  man  is  not  necessarily  blear  eyed  or  short 
sighted  because  he  does  not  recognize  a  man 
whom  one  would  have  supposed  he  would  recog¬ 
nize.  Paul  had  been  long  absent  from  Jerusa¬ 
lem,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  had  known 
Annas  or  had  ever  seen  him.  It  is  not  certain 
that  at  this  meeting  of  the  Council,  the  High 
Priest  had  on  his  official  robes.  Moreover,  we 
cannot  be  certain  of  the  meaning  of  Paul’s  words 
— “I  knew  not  that  he  was  High  Priest!”  Pos¬ 
sibly  this  was  sarcasm.  Paul  was  in  the  mood  in 
which  it  is  easy  to  be  sarcastic,  and  it  may  be  he 
meant — “Who  could  have  supposed  that  a  ruf¬ 
fian  giving  such  an  atrocious  order  was  a  High 
Priest?”  That  the  Galatians  would  have  given 
Paul  their  eyes  does  not  prove  that  he  had  op- 
thalmia.  When  one  is  ardently  fond  of  another 


WHAT  WE  DO  AND  DO  NOT  KNOW 


23 


person,  he  says  he  would  give  him  even  his  eyes. 
That  expresses  the  top  notch  of  devotion.  When 
Farrar  pictures  Paul  as  so  weak  and  ailing  that 
he  had  to  be  passively  conducted  from  place  to 
place,  and  declares  it  was  almost  impossible  for 
him  to  get  through  the  ordinary  routine  of  life 
without  companions  to  guide  and  protect  and  lead 
him  by  the  hand,  he  is  the  victim  of  an  auda¬ 
cious  imagination.  It  may  be  that  Paul  had  de¬ 
fective  eyesight,  but  we  do  not  know  it.  Luke 
evidently  did  not  know  it  either.  He  tells  us 
how  Paul  fastened  his  eyes  on  the  Sorcerer  Ely- 
mas,  and  how  he  fastened  his  eyes  on  a  cripple 
at  Lystra.  He  could  apparently  strike  terror  and 
inspire  hope  by  his  look.  When  Paul  faced  the 
Council  in  Jerusalem,  Luke  was  impressed  by 
Paul’s  use  of  his  eyes.  “He  looked  steadfastly 
on  the  Council.”  He  awed  them  by  his  glance. 

Was  Paul  married?  If  he  was,  did  his  wife 
leave  him  when  he  became  a  Christian,  or  did  she 
die?  We  do  not  know.  There  is  no  evidence 
which  is  conclusive.  All  answers  are  nothing  but 
conjectures. 

Did  Paul  see  Jesus  in  the  flesh?  It  is  impossible 
to  answer.  Speculation  has  been  especially  active 
at  this  point,  but  the  most  positive  and  best  but¬ 
tressed  answer  is  nothing  but  a  guess. 

Did  Paul  write  the  Pastoral  Epistles?  It  is  a 
fashion  in  certain  circles  to  say  no.  When  men 
say  he  did  not  write  them,  they  are  guessing. 


24 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


When  it  is  said  that  in  their  present  form  they  are 
not  Paul’s  work,  but  that  in  them  one  finds  un¬ 
doubtedly  genuine  Pauline  material,  that  also  is  a 
guess.  No  man  now  alive  knows  enough  to  pick 
out  of  the  Pastoral  Epistles,  the  Pauline  sen¬ 
tences  from  those  written  by  another  pen.  All 
such  alleged  learning  is  only  guesswork.  For  my 
part,  I  guess  that  Paul  wrote  all  the  three  Pas¬ 
toral  Epistles.  I  have  earned  my  right  to  guess 
by  reading  everything  of  importance  published 
on  the  question  within  the  last  fifty  years,  and 
by  living  with  the  Apostle  on  intimate  terms  sum¬ 
mer  and  winter,  day  and  night  for  more  than  a 
third  of  a  century.  I  may  be  pardoned  for  claim¬ 
ing  the  right  to  say  I  know  him.  I  know  his  ac¬ 
cent,  his  intonations,  his  overtones  and  his  un¬ 
dertones,  his  subtle  mannerisms,  and  the  flavor 
of  his  individuality.  Because  I  know  him,  I  am 
sure  he  wrote  the  Pastoral  Epistles.  It  is  just  as 
certain  to  me  that  he  wrote  them  as  it  is  that  he 
did  not  write  the  letter  to  the  Hebrews.  I  will 
put  up  my  guess  against  the  guess  of  the  boldest 
and  most  learned  of  all  the  experts  who  declare 
he  did  not  write  them.  When  men  throw  away 
the  Pastoral  Epistles,  they  act  on  a  guess  which  is 
without  foundation.  It  is  the  fashion  just  now 
to  dispute  them,  but  it  is  a  fashion,  I  doubt  not, 
which  will  pass. 

It  is  often  said  that  Paul  was  devoid  of  the 
sense  of  humor,  that  he  had  no  love  of  Nature, 


WHAT  WE  DO  AND  DO  NOT  KNOW 


that  he  was  not  fond  of  children,  that  he  was 
totally  indifferent  to  the  feelings  of  animals,  and 
that  he  had  no>  appreciation  of  art.  All  these  are 
inferences  more  or  less  capricious,  drawn  by  am¬ 
bitious  theorists  from  the  scanty  and  fragmen¬ 
tary  material  in  our  possession.  It  did  not  lie 
within  the  scope  of  Luke’s  purpose  to  tell  what 
Paul  liked  and  what  he  did  not  like,  nor  was  it 
possible  for  Paul  to  show  everything  within  him 
in  thirteen  short  letters  written  on  high  and  se¬ 
rious  spiritual  themes.  There  was  in  these  let¬ 
ters  no  excuse  for  humor,  no  room  for  descrip¬ 
tions  of  natural  scenery,  no  justification  for  rav¬ 
ing  over  art,  and  no  call  for  an  expression  of 
affection  either  for  animals  or  for  children. 
The  argument  from  silence  is  the  most  preca¬ 
rious  of  all  arguments.  We  have  no  right  to 
judge  a  man  by  what  he  does  not  say  on  sub¬ 
jects  unrelated  to  the  matter  which  he  has  in 
hand.  It  may  be  that  Paul  was  blind  to  the 
glories  of  nature,  and  indifferent  to  the  beauty  of 
art,  but  we  do  not  know  it.  Let  us  not  condemn 
him  on  a  mere  conjecture.  It  is  possible  he  could 
not  laugh,  and  that  his  sense  of  humor  was  un¬ 
developed,  but  we  cannot  accuse  him  of  this. 
We  do  not  know  enough. 

Was  he  versed  in  Greek  learning?  Had  he 
a  wide  knowledge  of  Greek  poetry  and  philos¬ 
ophy  and  history?  We  do  not  know.  Because 
he  gives  us  three  quotations  from  foreign  poets,' 


26 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


we  cannot  conclude  he  was  familiar  with  the 
whole  literature  of  Greece  and  Crete.  Almost 
any  one  can  quote  poets  whose  lines  have  gotten 
into  the  air  and  become  the  common  possession 
of  mankind.  When  Paul  wrote  his  letters  he 
was  not  dealing  with  Greek  philosophy  or  verse, 
and  hence  we  cannot  tell  whether  his  literary 
education  had  been  liberal  or  narrow.  When 
men  call  him  an  ignoramus  outside  the  field  of 
rabbinical  learning,  they  are  simply  guessing,  and 
when  he  is  given  credit  for  extensive  classical 
culture,  that  also  is  a  guess.  Why  not  be  candid 
and  confess  we  do  not  know? 

Was  Paul  domineering?  Many  persons  dislike 
him  because  he  was.  But  how  do  they  know? 
Certain  scholars  have  decided  that  he  was.  But 
how  did  they  find  out?  “Domineering”  is  an  un¬ 
lovely  word,  and  one  should  not  use  it  unless  he 
is  certain  of  his  ground.  It  has  been  claimed 
that  Paul  was  domineering  because  he  differed 
from  Barnabas  in  the  taking  of  John  Mark  on 
the  second  missionary  journey.  But  was  he?  Is 
every  man  domineering  who  differs  from  another 
man  in  judgment?  Cannot  a  man  have  an  opin¬ 
ion  which  differs  from  the  opinion  of  a  friend 
without  being  guilty  of  manifesting  a  domineer¬ 
ing  spirit?  Nobody  knows  whether  Paul  was  in 
the  right  or  in  the  wrong.  We  do  not  possess  all 
the  facts.  We  lack  the  data  which  would  justify 
us  in  passing  judgment.  There  is  no  more  rea- 


WHAT  WE  DO  AND  DO  NOT  KNOW 


27 


son  for  thinking  Paul  was  in  the  wrong  than 
for  thinking  Barnabas  was  in  the  right.  We  are 
better  able  to  judge  of  Paul’s  wisdom  than  we  are 
of  that  of  Barnabas,  for  the  reason  that  Paul’s 
judgment  is  put  to  the  test  oftener  in  the  New 
Testament,  and  the  fact  that  Paul  so  frequently 
shows  himself  a  man  of  superior  wisdom,  should 
make  one  cautious  about  condemning  him  for  his 
decision  against  John  Mark.  That  Paul  showed 
an  ugly  and  tyrannical  spirit  in  deciding  that 
John  Mark  lacked  the  qualifications  for  render¬ 
ing  effective  service  on  that  particular  journey  is 
only  a  conjecture,  and  it  is  of  such  a  flimsy  char¬ 
acter  that  no  reliable  conclusion  can  be  built  upon 
it.  That  Paul  was  domineering  is  a  surmise  of 
persons  who  do  not  like  him. 

It  is  amazing  how  little  we  know  of  Paul’s 
life,  and  yet  how  much  we  know  of  his  character. 
We  know  he  was  born  in  Tarsus,  but  we  do  not 
know  the  name  or  the  character  of  either  his 
father  or  his  mother.  We  do  not  know  whether 
he  had  brothers  or  whether  he  had  more  than  the 
one  sister  mentioned  by  Luke.  He  himself  never 
makes  any  reference  to  any  member  of  his  fam¬ 
ily.  We  know  the  name  of  only  one  of  his  teach¬ 
ers — “Gamaliel.”  We  know  nothing  of  the  first 
35  years  of  his  life.  Jesus  in  his  first  30  years 
speaks  once.  Paul  does  not  speak  at  all.  After 
his  conversion,  there  is  almost  a  total  blank  of 
twelve  years.  From  this  on  through  17  years  we 


28 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


get  swift  and  isolated  glimpses  of  him  in  the 
Acts  and  in  the  letters,  but  when  the  curtain  goes 
down  at  the  end  of  the  Book  of  the  Acts,  we  are 
left  in  the  dark. 

Tradition  says  he  was  beheaded  outside  the 
City  of  Rome,  two  miles  southward  from  the 
Ostian  gate.  We  know  that  a  centurion  and  a 
detachment  of  the  praetorian  guard  went  with 
him  accompanied  by  a  rabble.  What  friends,  if 
any,  went  with  him,  we  do  not  know.  What 
did  they  say?  What  was  his  last  word?  No  one 
can  tell.  We  do  not  know  when  he  was  born — 
either  the  day  or  the  month  or  the  year.  We  do 
not  know  when  he  died,  either  the  year  or  the 
month  or  the  day.  A  church  stands  on  the  spot 
where  tradition  says  he  died — the  Church  of  the 
Three  Fountains.  A  church  also  stands  on  the 
spot  where  tradition  says  he  was  buried,  the 
Church  of  St.  Paul’s  without  the  walls.  His 
biography  can  never  be  written.  We  do  not 
know  enough.  His  character  is  as  clear  as  the 
sun. 


Ill 


HIS  LIMITATIONS 


Ill 


HIS  LIMITATIONS 

Men  call  him  a  Saint,  but  he  was  far  from 
perfect.  No  saint  is  free  from  faults.  The 
world  calls  him  holy,  but  he  was  not  altogether 
whole.  He  had  defects,  flaws,  blemishes.  Our 
New  Testament  paints  its  heroes,  warts  and  all. 
Of  Jesus  it  is  said  that  “he  hath  been  in  all  points 
tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin.”  Paul 
was  also  tempted  like  as  we  are,  and  like  us  he 
fell.  He  is  our  brother  in  transgression. 

There  is  a  vast  chasm  between  Jesus  and  Paul. 
Jesus  never  confesses  sin,  never  shows  a  trace 
of  remorse  or  even  regret.  Jesus  was  never 
ashamed,  never  cried  out  for  forgiveness.  We 
see  Paul  again  and  again  with  his  mouth  in  the 
dust.  “I  am  not  worthy  to  be  called  an  Apos¬ 
tle,”  so  Paul  said.  “I  am  the  Son  of  God,”  said 
Jesus.  “I  am  less  than  the  least  of  all  saints,” 
said  Paul.  “One  is  your  Master,  and  all  ye  are 
brethren,”  said  Jesus.  “Which  of  you  convict- 
eth  me  of  sin?”  asked  Jesus.  “I  am  the  chief 
of  sinners,”  exclaimed  Paul.  Nobody  in  Paul’s 
presence  feels  like  crying,  “Depart  from  me  for 


31 


32 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


I  am  a  sinful  man.”  On  the  other  hand  we  cling 
to  him,  and  join  in  his  confession — “The  good 
which  I  would  I  do  not,  but  the  evil  which  I 
would  not  that  I  practice.”  Near  the  end  of  his 
life  Paul  wrote  to  his  Philippian  friends — “I  am 
not  already  made  perfect,  but  I  press  on.  I  count 
not  myself  yet  to  have  laid  hold,  but  I  press  on 
toward  the  goal.”  He  is  not  in  Jesus’  class;  he 
is  in  our  class.  His  shortcomings  bring  him 
near  to  us.  His  blunders  knit  us  to  him.  He 
helps  us  in  ways  in  which  Jesus  cannot  help.  We 
need  two  examples,  a  sinless  man,  and  a  sinner 
who  has  repented.  We  need  the  inspiration  of  a 
man  who  never  fell,  and  the  encouragement  of 
a  man  who  fell  and  got  up  again.  A  perfect  man 
reveals  what  the  ideal  is,  a  man  defeated  and 
finally  victorious  discloses  what  by  God’s  grace 
we  may  ultimately  become.  The  sinfulness  of 
Paul  as  well  as  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus  has  a 
part  to  play  in  our  redemption.  We  need  Jesus 
on  one  side  of  us  and  Paul  on  the  other,  if  we 
are  to  walk  in  triumph  along  the  difficult  and 
perilous  way.  This  does  not  rob  Jesus  of  his 
supreme  place,  for  Paul  is  all  the  time  saying 
that  it  is  not  he  who  is  overcoming,  but  Christ 
who  is  living  in  him.  We  need  the  power  of 
Christ  mediated  to  us  in  two  forms,  in  the  form 
of  the  Word  made  incarnate,  and  in  the  form  of 
a  man  of  like  passions  and  failures  with  our¬ 
selves. 


HIS  LIMITATIONS 


33 


Because  Paul  fell  and  came  short  of  the  glory 
of  God,  we  must  not  expect  of  him  all  that  we 
find  in  Jesus.  We  must  not  demand  an  unerr¬ 
ing  judgment,  only  a  sinless  man  can  possess 
that.  We  must  not  look  for  infallible  opinions, 
only  a  man  who  never  sinned  can  have  those.  If 
Paul  falls  below  the  ideal  in  disposition  and  con¬ 
duct,  we  must  not  be  surprised  that  he  also  falls 
short  of  the  ideal  in  his  thinking  and  teaching. 
Why  should  we  shrink  from  acknowledging  his 
limitations  when  he  himself  was  so  ready  to  con¬ 
fess  them?  Why  make  claims  for  him  which 
he  never  made  for  himself?  When  men  put  him 
on  the  same  level  with  Jesus,  and  claim  for  every 
one  of  his  words  an  authority  equal  to  that  of 
the  words  of  the  Son  of  God,  they  take  a  posi¬ 
tion  which  cannot  be  successfully  defended,  and 
which  Paul  himself  would  be  the  first  to  repudi¬ 
ate.  “Who  then  is  Paul?”  he  was  wont  to  say 
to  admirers  who  exalted  him  to  a  place  which 
was  not  rightfully  his.  Why  claim  for  him  a 
perfection  which  he  did  not  possess,  and  attrib¬ 
ute  to  him  infallibility  when  his  errors  are  writ¬ 
ten  large  before  our  eyes?  When  certain  enthu¬ 
siasts  at  Lystra  wanted  to  worship  him  as  a  god, 
he  protested  with  vigor  and  drew  back  in  horror. 
He  wanted  no  prostrations  before  him.  All  that 
he  claimed  was  that  on  essential  points  he  had 
the  mind  of  Christ,  and  that  the  ambition  of  his 
life  was  to  be  faithful  to  him. 


34 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


“Every  man,”  says  Lowell,  “is  the  prisoner 
of  his  date,”  and  Paul  is  no  exception.  No  man 
can  escape  entirely  the  limitations  of  his  genera- 
*  tion.  His  historic  environment  leaves  marks 
upon  him  which  cannot  be  effaced.  In  his  letter 
to  the  Galatians,  Paul  uses  an  argument  which 
to  us  is  no  argument  at  all.  He  asserts  that 
when  the  promise  was  made  to  Abraham  and  his 
seed,  the  fact  that  the  word  “seed”  is  singular, 
shows  that  the  promise  could  not  refer  to  the 
Jewish  people,  but  must  refer  to  Christ.  To  us 
such  reasoning  is  puerile,  but  it  was  not  puerile 
to  Paul,  because  he  had  been  educated  in  the 
Rabbinical  school,  and  that  is  the  way  the  Rabbis 
argued.  Moreover,  the  people  were  accustomed 
to  such  argumentation,  and  when  a  man  wishes 
to  convince  his  audience,  he  must  make  use  of 
an  instrument  which  grips  their  mind.  This  ar¬ 
gument  does  not  grip  our  mind,  but  it  probably 
gripped  the  minds  of  those  to  whom  it  was  ad¬ 
dressed.  Rabbinical  exegesis  has  been  outgrown. 
We  smile  at  it.  Future  generations  may  laugh 
at  ours.  Later  on,  he  makes  use  of  the  story 
of  Hagar  and  Ishmael,  and  after  the  fashion  of 
the  Rabbis,  allegorizes  it.  Hagar  is  Mount  Sinai 
in  Arabia,  and  the  free  woman  is  the  Jerusalem 
which  is  above.  All  such  interpretation  is  to  us 
fantastic,  but  it  was  not  fantastic  to  Paul,  be¬ 
cause  he  had  been  in  college  at  Jerusalem,  and 
that  is  the  way  college  professors  interpreted 


HIS  LIMITATIONS  35 

Scripture  in  those  days.  In  his  use  of  the  Old 
Testament,  Paul  was  the  prisoner  of  his  date. 

Paul  was  powerfully  impressed  by  a  school  of 
authors,  much  in  vogue  in  the  first  century,  who  » 
wrote  apocalypses.  These  men  proclaimed  with 
passionate  assurance,  that  God  was  on  the  point 
of  manifesting  his  power  in  some  miraculous 
and  overwhelming  way.  There  were  words  of 
Jesus  which  seemed  to  fall  in  with  the  apocalyp¬ 
tic  way  of  thinking,  and  Paul’s  vehement  and 
fiery  nature  made  him  especially  responsive  to 
the  apocalyptic  outlook.  Christ’s  conception  of 
God  as  a  tender  and  sympathetic  father  made  it 
easy  for  his  followers  to  believe  that  the  world 
as  it  then  was  could  not  long  continue.  How 
could  a  God  of  wisdom  and  compassion  allow 
mankind  to  remain  in  such  a  welter  of  misery 
and  corruption?  Surely  a  social  order  that  had 
grown  irretrievably  rotten  was  ripe  for  the  burn¬ 
ing.  The  hardships  and  tribulations  of  Chris¬ 
tians  drove  them  to  the  Apocalyptic  vision.  It 
was  their  chief  solace  in  the  day  of  their  suffer¬ 
ing.  Without  this  to  sustain  them,  they  could 
scarcely  have  endured.  Paul  himself  comforted 
his  heart  by  the  expectation  of  the  speedy  com¬ 
ing  of  Jesus,  and  he  comforted  others  by  inspir¬ 
ing  in  them  the  same  hope.  To  the  Thessalo- 
nians  he  wrote,  “We  say  unto  you  by  the  word 
of  the  Lord,  that  we  that  are  alive,  that  are  left 
unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  shall  in  no  wise 


36 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


precede  them  that  are  fallen  asleep.  For  the 
Lord  himself  shall  descend  from  heaven,  with  a 
shout,  with  the  voice  of  an  archangel,  and  with 
the  trump  of  God:  and  the  dead  in  Christ  shall 
rise  first;  then  we  that  are  alive,  that  are  left, 
shall  together  with  them  be  caught  up  in  the 
clouds  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air:  and  so  shall 
we  ever  be  with  the  Lord.”  Nothing  could  be 
clearer  than  that.  If  that  does  not  say  that  Jesus 
is  coming  in  a  visible  and  miraculous  manner  in 
Paul’s  own  lifetime,  then  language  has  no  mean¬ 
ing.  The  same  conviction  is  expressed  with  em¬ 
phasis  in  Paul’s  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians: 
“Behold  I  tell  you  a  mystery.  We  all  shall  not 
sleep,  but  we  shall  all  be  changed,  in  a  moment 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  at  the  last  trump;  for 
the  trumpet  shall  sound,  and  the  dead  shall  be 
raised  incorruptible,  and  we  shall  be  changed.” 
The  meaning  of  this  is  indisputable.  To  the  Ro¬ 
mans  he  wrote,  “The  day  is  at  hand.”  To  the 
Philippians  he  wrote,  “The  Lord  is  at  hand.” 
Such  language  can  have  but  one  meaning.  When 
Peter  wrote,  “The  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand,” 
he  expressed  not  only  his  own  conviction  but 
that  of  Paul  and  of  all  the  other  Apostles.  The 
early  church  lived  in  the  ardent  expectation  of 
the  early  ending  of  the  world.  Here  then  is  a 
solid  fact  which  cannot  be  evaded.  This  fact 
raises  certain  questions  which  must  be  answered. 
Can  an  Apostle  be  mistaken?  Yes,  Paul  was. 


HIS  LIMITATIONS 


37 


Can  a  man  be  inspired  and  hold  erroneous  no¬ 
tions?  Yes,  Paul  was  inspired  and  knew  only 
in  part  as  he  himself  confessed.  Can  the  New 
Testament  be  authoritative  and  contain  errors? 
Yes,  the  New  Testament  contains  errors,  and  at 
the  same  time  speaks  with  authority  on  all  mat¬ 
ters  essential  to  our  salvation.  How  can  an  hon¬ 
est  man  say  that  the  New  Testament  is  an  iner- 
rant  book?  Why  not  face  the  fact?  What  is  in 
jeopardy?  Nothing  but  the  traditional  defini¬ 
tion  of  inspiration.  When  facts  make  havoc  of 
inherited  definitions,  those  definitions  must  be  al¬ 
tered.  The  only  precious  thing  in  danger  is  the 
Church’s  reputation  for  honesty  and  candor.  The 
cause  of  truth  can  never  be  advanced  by  men  who 
dare  not  face  the  facts.  It  is  disheartening  that 
even  in  cur  day  there  are  men  of  intelligence  and 
noble  purpose  who  refuse  to  admit  that  Paul 
was  mistaken,  and  who  stand  on  tiptoe  eagerly 
anticipating  the  immediate  fulfilment  of  his 
words.  Rather  than  surrender  an  untenable 
theory  of  inspiration  they  are  willing  to  shut 
their  eyes  to  the  experience  of  sixty  genera¬ 
tions.  Through  1900  years  the  Holy  Spirit 
has  been  testifying  in  human  experience  that  Paul 
and  all  the  other  Apostles  held  and  taught  ideas 
of  the  end  of  the  world  which  were  mistaken, 
but  now  as  in  the  days  of  Stephen,  there  are  de¬ 
vout  and  honored  men  who  do  always  resist  the 
Holy  Spirit. 


38 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


One  error  usually  leads  to  another.  Because 
Paul  was  mistaken  in  regard  to  the  coming  of 
Christ,  much  that  he  says  in  regard  to  marriage 
is  mischievous.  Paul  disparaged  marriage.  He 
did  not  claim  it  was  sinful,  but  he  advised  men 
not  to  marry  unless  they  were  so  passionate  that 
they  could  not  safely  live  alone.  He  advised 
fathers  not  to  give  their  daughters  in  marriage. 
All  such  advice  was  due  to  his  conviction  that 
the  time  was  short.  Why  think  of  marriage 
when  the  end  of  all  things  was  at  hand?  Why 
should  a  Christian  entangle  himself  with  domes¬ 
tic  responsibilities,  and  increase  his  sorrows  by 
bringing  upon  a  woman  the  sufferings  which  a 
confession  of  Christ  involved,  when  the  old  order 
was  to  give  place  so  soon  to  the  new?  Why 
burden  oneself  with  domestic  cares,  when  there 
was  scarcely  time  enough  to  prepare  oneself  for 
the  great  change?  When  our  premise  is  mista¬ 
ken,  our  conclusion  is  sure  to  be  wrong.  Paul 
was  wrong  in  much  that  he  wrote  about  marriage, 
and  the  harm  he  has  done  at  this  point  cannot  be 
measured.  The  advocates  of  celibacy  have  in 
every  generation  gone  to  Paul  for  the  sanction 
of  their  views.  Tender  consciences  have  been 
tortured,  and  sacred  unions  have  been  jeopard¬ 
ized,  and  in  many  cases  destroyed,  by  Paul's  mis¬ 
leading  advice  concerning  marriage.  We  will 
not  forget  however,  the  many  sound  things  he 
said  to  husbands  and  wives,  nor  will  we  fail  to 


HIS  LIMITATIONS 


39 


remember  that  late  in  life,  he  symbolized  the  re¬ 
lation  between  Christ  and  his  Church  by  the 
union  of  husband  and  wife.  Paul  never  claimed  to 
be  infallible  in  all  his  opinions  and  judgments. 
At  the  beginning  of  his  paragraph  dealing  with 
marriage,  he  says,  “Now  concerning  unmarried 
girls,  I  have  no  commandment  of  the  Lord:  I 
give  you  simply  my  opinion.  All  I  can  do  is  to 
tell  you  what  I  think.”  At  the  end  of  the  para¬ 
graph,  he  says,  “This  is  my  judgment,  and  I 
think  that  I  have  the  spirit  of  God.”  He  did  not 
intend  that  we  should  take  his  every  opinion 
as  the  infallible  and  unchanging  word  of  the 
Eternal. 

Fallacious  occasionally  in  argument,  mistaken 
sometimes  in  opinion,  unsound  now  and  then  in 
judgment,  he  was  also  at  times  un-Christian  in 
conduct.  His  temper  was  hot,  and  he  did  not 
always  succeed  in  keeping  it  under  control.  When 
at  his  trial  in  Jerusalem,  the  High  Priest  ordered 
a  bystander  to  slap  the  prisoner  on  the  mouth, 
Paul  retorted,  “God  shall  smite  you,  you  whited 
wall.”  It  has  been  questioned  whether  this  was 
really  a  sin.  We  have  so  much  of  this  sort  of 
repartee  in  ourselves,  we  should  be  glad  to  find 
it  declared  excusable  in  a  saint.  A  tongue-lash¬ 
ing  is  a  good  thing,  we  feel,  even  for  a  High 
Priest,  when  he  degenerates  into  a  ruffian.  We 
admire  a  man  who  resents  an  injustice  and  de¬ 
nounces  it  with  adequate  speech.  But  no  matter 


40 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


what  our  justification  of  Paul  may  be,  we  know 
that  Paul  felt  he  had  done  wrong,  and  imme¬ 
diately  apologized.  He  quoted  the  Scriptures  to 
his  own  condemnation.  He  knew,  and  we  know 
that  in  that  heated  retort,  he  fell  below  the  level 
of  Jesus.  Jesus  also  once  stood  before  a  High 
Priest,  and  while  standing  there,  was  slapped  on 
the  mouth  by  an  officer  of  the  court.  But  Jesus 
did  not  strike  back.  All  he  said  was,  “If  I  have 
spoken  evil  bear  witness  of  the  evil;  but  if  well, 
why  smitest  thou  me?”  “As  a  lamb  that  is  led  to 
the  slaughter,  and  as  a  sheep  that  before  its 
shearers  is  dumb,  so  he  opened  not  his  mouth.” 
That  is  the  ideal.  Jesus  was  a  lamb,  Paul  was 
a  lion.  When  Paul  was  angry  he  roared.  But 
he  did  not  roar  long.  Immediately  in  the  voice 
of  a  dove  he  confessed  himself  in  the  wrong  and 
thus  showed  himself  a  Christian  gentleman. 

He  had  in  him  the  stuff  of  which  bigots  are 
made.  Now  and  then  it  rings  out  in  his  letters. 
His  convictions  were  so  intense  that  he  did  not 
always  hold  his  language  within  bounds.  “Be¬ 
ware  of  the  dogs.”  So  he  wrote  to  the  Philip- 
pians,  having  in  mind  the  men  who  differed  from 
him  in  conviction.  It  was  not  a  nice  word  for  a 
minister  of  Christ  to  use,  and  too  often  men  in 
holy  zeal  for  God  have  followed  his  example. 
In  his  letter  to  the  Galatians,  he  says,  “Though 
we  or  an  angel  from  heaven  should  preach  unto 
you  any  Gospel  other  than  that  which  we  preached 


HIS  LIMITATIONS 


41 


unto  you,  let  him  be  accursed.”  On  writing  that 
last  word,  one  would  have  supposed  that  Paul 
would  have  blushed  and  blotted  it  out.  But  it  is 
just  the  word  he  wants,  and  so  he  writes  the 
whole  sentence  again  to  convince  his  readers  that 
he  means  just  what  he  says.  Paul  liked  the  word 
“accursed”  too  well.  Our  Revisers  did  not  like  it, 
and  so  they  erased  it,  and  wrote  down  a  Greek 
word — “Anathema.”  That  sounds  better,  for 

the  harshness  is  muffled  in  the  music  of  the  Greek 
syllables.  Moreover,  many  readers  do  not  know 
what  “anathema”  means.  Paul  knew.  At  the 
end  of  his  first  letter  to  the  Corinthians,  he  takes 
the  pen  from  the  hand  of  his  amanuensis  and 
writes  this:  “If  any  man  loveth  not  the  Lord, 
let  him  be  accursed.”  He  wrote  it  between  two 
lovely  sentences.  “Salute  one  another  with  a  holy 
kiss,”  and  “The  grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  you.”  A  thistle  burr  between  two  roses, 
the  old  bitter  weed  of  Pharisaic  intolerance,  - 
growing  up  amid  the  flowers  of  the  Christian 
heart.  Paul  was  right  when  he  wrote,  “I  am 
not  perfect  yet!” 


IV 


AS  SEEN  BY  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES 


IV 


AS  SEEN  BY  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES 

Most  of  them  did  not  see  him.  That  is  the 
reason  no  Greek  or  Roman  of  note  ever  wrote 
about  him.  How  could  they  write  about  a  man 
whom  they  did  not  see?  The  Romans  looked 
upon  the  Jews  as  a  contankerous  set  of  fanatics, 
and  had  no  dealings  with  them.  The  Roman 
spirit  was- incarnate  in  Gallio,  before  whom  Paul 
was  once  brought  for  trial.  Gallio  would  not 
allow  Paul  to  speak  at  all.  He  said  he  wanted 
nothing  to  do  with  the  case.  He  had  no  time  for 
such  bickerings  and  squabblings.  The  Greeks 
were  so  delighted  with  this  speech  of  the  pro- 
consul,  that  they  mobbed  the  leader  of  Paul’s  ac¬ 
cusers,  beating  him  before  Gallio’s  very  eyes,  but 
the  Roman  judge  took  no  notice.  That  was  the 
attitude  of  Rome,  a  lordly  indifference  to  all 
things  Jewish,  and  at  times  a  sour  and  insolent 
contempt.  Claudias  Lysias,  a  captain  in  the  Ro¬ 
man  army  stationed  in  Jerusalem,  had  keen  eyes 
and  ears  for  all  things  important,  but  he  had 
never  even  heard  of  Paul.  When  the  Apostle 
one  day  fell  into  his  hands,  the  Roman  officer 

45 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


& 

thought  he  had  captured  an  Egyptian  assassin. 
The  only  Roman  of  high  standing  who  ever 
heard  the  Apostle  speak — the  Procurator  Festus 
< — was  convinced  that  Paul  was  crazy.  He  was 
not  willing  to  hear  him  through,  brushing  him 
aside  as  a  poor  unfortunate,  who  had  become 
demented  by  long  brooding  over  theological  dis¬ 
tinctions  and  discussions. 

Nor  did  any  Greek  of  high  position  ever  set 
his  eyes  squarely  on  Paul.  The  Greeks  were  so 
conscious  of  their  culture,  that  they  were  blind 
to  all  foreigners,  especially  the  Jews.  To  the 
Highbrows  in  Athens,  Paul  was  nothing  but  a 
babbler,  and  as  soon  as  he  touched  the  story  of 
the  resurrection,  they  laughed  in  his  face.  Turn¬ 
ing  on  their  heels  they  left  him,  leaving  a  sting 
in  his  heart  which  remained  through  many  days. 
No  Greek  of  renown  could  waste  time  on  such 
a  man. 

So  far  as  the  business  world  took  notice  of 
him,  he  was  simply  an  agitator  who  was  danger¬ 
ous  to  vested  interests.  He  swept  away  the  in¬ 
come  of  a  group  of  men  in  Philippi,  which  so 
enraged  them  that  they  succeeded  in  driving  him 
from  the  city.  In  the  City  of  Ephesus,  his  teach¬ 
ing  interfered  so  disastrously  with  the  trade  of 
a  certain  class  of  money-makers,  that  the  leader 
of  them  stirred  up  a  riot  which  caused  pandemo¬ 
nium  for  several  hours.  It  was  in  the  city  in 
which  Paul  hit  business  hard,  that  he  was  obliged 


AS  SEEN  BY  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES  47 


to  fight,  as  he  said,  with  beasts.  There  are  no 
men  who  fight  so  unscrupulously  and  fiercely  as 
men  whose  profits  are  being  cut  down.  Would 
you  drive  a  man  to  fury,  then  touch  his  purse. 

The  two  most  common  accusations  brought 
against  the  Apostle,  were  that  he  was  breaking 
the  law  of  Csesar,  and  that  he  was  speaking 
against  Moses.  Which  one  of  these  charges  was 
put  foremost  depended  entirely  upon  the  time  and 
place. '  In  Thessalonica  when  the  rabble  dragged 
Paul’s  host  before  the  rulers  of  the  city,  the 
yell  was,  “These  men  have  turned  the  world  up¬ 
side  down.  They  are  constantly  violating  the 
decrees  of  Caesar  by  declaring  that  some  one  else 
called  Jesus  is  King.”  In  Caesarea  where  Paul 
was  arraigned  before  Felix,  the  prosecuting  at¬ 
torney  presented  his  indictment  thus:  “We  have 
found  this  man  a  pestilent  fellow,  and  a  mover 
of  insurrections  among  all  the  Jews  throughout 
the  world,  and  a  ringleader  of  the  sect  of  the 
Nazarenes,  and  a  man  who  just  now  has  tried  to 
profane  the  temple.”  The  Jews  standing  by,  all 
declared  that  every  count  in  this  indictment  was 
true.  Probably  no  better  expression  of  the  Jew¬ 
ish  conception  of  Paul  can  be  found  than  that 
which  burst  from  the  throats  of  the  leaders  of 
the  mob  in  the  temple  court  on  the  day  Paul  was 
accused  of  having  brought  his  Ephesian  friend 
Trophimus  into  the  temple:  “This  is  the  man 
that  teacheth  all  men  everywhere  against  the  peo- 


48 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


pie,  and  the  law,  and  this  place.”  When  Paul 
arrived  in  Jerusalem  his  friends  told  him  what 
his  enemies  had  been  saying,  and  the  gist  of  it 
all  was  that  he  had  been  “teaching  all  the  Jews 
who  were  living  among  the  Gentiles  to  forsake 
Moses,  urging  them  not  to  circumcise  their  chil¬ 
dren,  nor  to  walk  after  the  customs.”  Accord¬ 
ing  to  public  rumor  throughout  the  whole  Jewish 
world,  Paul  was  a  renegade  and  apostate,  a  man 
who  was  a  blasphemer  of  his  father’s  religion 
and  a  traitor  to  his  race.  To  multitudes  in  the 
Gentile  world,  he  was  an  enemy  of  civil  order, 
a  disturber  of  the  peace,  what  we  would  call  a 
communist  or  anarchist  or  Bolshevik.  He  was  a 
man  with  a  red  flag.  By  sensible  people  he  was 
counted  an  undesirable  citizen — a  man  to  be 
feared  and  hated  and  shunned. 

Wherever  he  went  he  was  hounded  by  men 
who  were  afraid  of  him,  and  who  did  their  ut¬ 
most  to  bring  his  work  to  nothing.  They  were 
always  saying  that  he  was  not  an  apostle  at  all 
— only  a  pretender  and  a  usurper  and  that  Paul 
was  conscious  of  this  in  his  own  heart,  for  oth¬ 
erwise  he  would  have  accepted  a  stipend  from  his 
converts,  and  not  been  willing  to  earn  his  living 
by  the  work  of  his  own  hands.  Starting  with 
the  assumption  that  he  was  a  hypocrite  and  liar, 
they  found  it  easy  to  find  proof  that  he  was  a 
demagogue  and  a  trickster,  always  catching  peo¬ 
ple  by  cunning  and  deceit.  He  was  a  man  with- 


AS  SEEN  BY  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES  49 


out  principle — an  opportunist,  a  trimmer,  a  cheat, 
ready  to  be  all  things  to  all  men  if  only  he  could 
enhance  his  own  popularity  and  feather  his  own 
nest.  He  was  double-faced  and  double-tongued, 
saying  one  thing  at  one  time  and  a  contradictory 
thing  at  another  time,  devoid  of  consistency,  and 
caring  only  for  what  would  further  his  own  self¬ 
ish  ends.  He  was  a  coward,  for  at  a  distance 
he  would  indulge  in  big  talk,  but  when  you  got 
him  face  to  face  he  was  meek  as  a  lamb  and  as 
harmless  as  a  dove.  He  was  a  lover  of  money, 
and  liked  to  take  up  collections  for  the  poor,  be¬ 
cause  some  of  the  cash  was  sure  to  find  its  way 
into  his  own  pocket.  He  was  in  the  philanthropic 
business  for  what  he  could  make  out  of  it.  His 
zeal  for  poor  people  in  Jerusalem  was  a  camou¬ 
flage  for  the  vileness  of  a  covetous  heart.  Fur¬ 
thermore  he  was  a  weakling,  a  man  without  cul¬ 
ture  or  oratorical  power.  As  a  speaker  he  had 
no  ability.  His  speech  was  of  no  account.  Some 
went  so  far  as  to  say  that  his  delivery  was  be¬ 
neath  contempt.  These  are  some  of  the  things 
which  his  critics  had  to  say  about  him.  A  se¬ 
rious  arraignment  it  is  :  Impostor — pretender — 
charlatan — usurper — demagogue — trickster — liar 
— coward — opportunist — moneygrabber — weak¬ 
ling.  What  worse  things  could  be  said?  One  is 
reminded  of  our  Lord’s  words — “If  they  have 
called  the  master  of  the  house  Beelzebub,  how 
much  more  them  of  his  household?”  Many  of 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


So 

t 

these  opponents  were  no  doubt  pious  and  honest 
men.  It  is  amazing  what  devout  and  honorable 
men  are  sometimes  capable  of  believing  and  say¬ 
ing.  These  men  believed  they  were  doing  God  a 
service,  just  as  Paul  believed  that  he  was  pleas¬ 
ing  God  by  compelling  Christians  to  blaspheme 
the  name  of  Jesus.  The  men  who  stoned  Paul 
were  as  devout  and  honest  as  the  men  who  stoned 
Stephen,  and  the  men  who  stoned  Stephen  were 
as  religious  and  conscientious  as  the  men  who 
crucified  Jesus.  Conservatism  and  prejudice  and 
party  spirit  and  pride  of  opinion  and  stubborn¬ 
ness  and  vanity  and  ambition  have  a  strange  way 
of  working  together  with  Godly  devotion  and  de¬ 
vout  sincerity  and  pious  zeal  for  the  accomplish¬ 
ment  of  diabolical  ends.  One  can  readily  see 
why  Paul’s  enemies  arrived  at  their  state  of  mind 
and  heart.  He  certainly  ignored  the  plain  lan¬ 
guage  of  Scripture  in  regard  to  circumcision,  and 
he  surely  paid  scant  regard  to  customs  made  sa¬ 
cred  by  the  observance  of  a  thousand  years,  and 
without  doubt  he  brushed  aside  ordinances  as 
temporary  which  other  men  regarded  as  eter¬ 
nally  binding,  and  took  a  novel  view  of  the  essen¬ 
tials  of  a  truly  religious  life.  It  is  not  strange 
that  he  was  misunderstood,  nor  to  be  wondered 
at  that  being  misunderstood  he  should  be  misrep¬ 
resented.  Being  misrepresented,  it  was  inevita¬ 
ble  that  he  should  come  to  be  disliked  and  sus¬ 
pected,  and  when  suspicion  and  dislike  have  done 


AS  SEEN  BY  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES  51 


their  perfect  work,  they  bring  forth  hate  and 
lies.  Paul’s  critics  had  good  grounds,  they 
thought,  for  every  charge  they  brought  against 
him.  He  was  always  doing  things  and  saying 
things  which  confirmed  them  in  their  hostile  feel¬ 
ings.  It  is  impossible  for  one  to  judge  correctly 
a  man  who  is  above  him.  Paul  was  so  high  above 
the  heads  of  his  critics,  that  we  must  pity  them 
rather  than  condemn  them.  His  gentleness,  for 
instance,  was  to  them  inexplicable.  It  seemed  to 
them  a  form  of  cowardice.  His  willingness  to 
give  his  life  to  helping  others  was  to  them  a  mys¬ 
tery,  as  it  must  be  to  every  one  who  holds  that  no 
one  ever  does  anything  except  with  the  expecta¬ 
tion  of  personal  profit.  His  concern  for  poor 
people  far  away  was  to  them  a  sham,  for  they  had 
no  sympathy,  perhaps,  with  poor  people  at  their 
very  door.  Moreover  men  do  not  like  a  turn¬ 
coat,  and  that  was  what  Paul  was.  He  was  an 
enemy  of  Christians,  and  then  in  a  moment  be¬ 
came  one  himself.  He  started  to  Damascus  to 
do  one  thing,  and  then  turned  round  and  did  an¬ 
other.  That  is  a  form  of  fickleness  which  many 
men  cannot  understand  or  forgive.  His  ene¬ 
mies  were  always  twitting  him  on  the  fact  that  he 
was  not  one  of  the  Twelve,  that  he  had  not  en¬ 
joyed  the  privileges  which  had  been  enjoyed  by 
Peter  and  John,  and  that  his  knowledge  of  Jesus 
was  of  necessity  limited,  and  his  teaching  of  an 
authority  far  inferior  to  theirs.  Their  criticisms 


52 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


and  faultfindings,  even  their  calumnies  and  slan¬ 
ders  are  of  great  value  to  us  in  our  study  of  his 
character.  They  enable  us  to  see  him  as  others 
saw  him.  What  they  said  was  often  only  perverse 
imagination,  but  even  slander  sometimes  throws 
a  light  on  the  man  at  whom  it  is  cast.  What  illu¬ 
mination  for  instance  lies  in  the  blistering  words 
men  threw  at  Jesus — “A  glutton  and  a  winebib- 
ber,  a  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners.”  The 
vituperation  of  Paul’s  enemies  is  instructive  be¬ 
cause  of  what  it  does  not  say.  There  were  many 
sins  of  which  Paul  was  never  accused.  Had 
there  been  the  slightest  indication  of  their  pres¬ 
ence,  they  would  not  have  escaped  the  shafts  of 
the  enemy.  Then  again  had  it  not  been  for  these 
calumnies  and  castigations,  we  should  never  have 
known  what  a  great  man  Paul  was.  He  lived  in 
a  storm  of  abuse  and  remained  sweet.  He  suf¬ 
fered  long  and  still  was  kind.  He  was  pelted 
with  cruel  criticism,  and  lashed  with  lying  accu¬ 
sations,  but  kept  right  on  with  his  work.  He 
did  his  utmost  to  make  the  world  happier  and 
better,  and  the  thanks  he  got  for  it  even  in  the 
capital  of  his  country,  was  the  venomous  shout, 
“Away  with  such  a  fellow  from  the  earth ;  for  it 
is  not  fit  that  he  should  live!”  It  is  enough  that 
the  servant  be  as  his  master. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  enemies  of  Paul  al¬ 
ways  wanted  to  kill  him.  They  hated  him  so  in¬ 
tensely  that  nothing  but  his  blood  would  satisfy 


AS  SEEN  BY  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES  53 

them.  They  loathed  him  with  a  detestation  that 
drove  them  wild.  The  more  than  forty  men  who 
bound  themselves  by  an  oath  that  they  would 
neither  eat  nor  drink  till  they  had  killed  Paul 
were  representatives  of  a  great  multitude  who 
were  miserable  because  Paul  was  alive.  We  can- 
not  know  a  man  until  we  see  him  suffer.  It  was 
a  tradition  in  the  early  church,  that  Jesus  on  call¬ 
ing  Paul  said,  “I  will  show  him  how  many  things 
he  must  suffer  for  my  name’s  sake.” 

Every  man  in  proportion  to  his  power,  attracts 
or  repels  the  hearts  of  others.  If  Paul  repelled 
some  men  mightily,  so  did  he  bind  others  to  him 
with  hoops  of  steel.  If  he  was  one  of  the  most 
hated  of  men,  so  was  he  one  of  the  most  loved. 
The  Galatian  Christians  adored  him  and  would 
have  dug  out  their  eyes  and  made  him  a  present 
of  them.  The  Philippian  converts  followed  him 
wherever  he  went  with  thoughts  of  affection,  and 
sent  him  presents  again  and  again.  He  had 
friends  in  Corinth  so  devoted  to  him  that  they 
were  in  danger  of  thinking  more  about  their  loy¬ 
alty  to  him  than  to  Jesus.  Paul  was  horrified  to 
hear  them  shouting — “We  belong  to  Paul!”  The 
hearts  of  his  friends  in  Ephesus  were  so  inter¬ 
twined  with  his,  that  when  he  told  them  on  his 
way  to  Jerusalem  that  they  would  never  see  him 
again,  they  broke  down  and  sobbed  like  chil¬ 
dren;  and  when  the  time  came  to  say  the  last 
goodbye,  they  threw  their  arms  around  his  neck 


54 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


and  cried  aloud,  and  kissed  him  again  and  again, 
and  in  order  to  be  with  him  to  the  last  minute, 
they  went  with  him  to  the  ship,  and  clung  to  him 
so  closely,  that  it  was  with  difficulty  he  tore  him¬ 
self  away  from  them.  They  saw  in  him  a  friend, 
a  brother,  a  father. 

The  esteem  in  which  Paul  was  held  by  those 
who  believed  in  him,  comes  out  in  the  pages  of 
Luke  in  his  description  of  Paul’s  last  journey  to 
Jerusalem.  It  was  a  continuous  ovation.  We  ex¬ 
claim — “Behold  how  they  loved  him !”  At  Troas, 
his  friends  were  so  eager  to  hear  him,  that  they 
sat  up  on  the  last  night  till  midnight,  the  room 
being  so  packed  that  at  least  one  of  them  had  to 
sit  in  a  window.  In  order  to  get  a  glimpse  of 
him,  the  elders  of  the  Ephesian  Church  walked 
to  Miletus,  a  distance  of  over  thirty  miles,  and 
would  no  doubt  have  walked  a  hundred  miles  if 
necessary,  to  look  once  more  upon  his  face.  At 
Tyre,  he  was  known  only  by  reputation,  but  the 
Christians  there  gave  him  a  most  hospitable  recep¬ 
tion,  entertaining  him  for  seven  days,  and  when 
the  time  arrived  for  him  to  go,  they  all  went  with 
him  to  the  ship,  men,  women  and  children,  and 
before  the  ship  sailed  they  kneeled  down  on  the 
beach  and  joined  in,  a  farewell  prayer  together. 
They  begged  him  not  to  go  to  Jerusalem,  but  he 
went  on.  At  Caesarea,  they  entreated  him  still 
more  earnestly  not  to  risk  his  life  in  Jerusalem, 
but  he  could  not  be  dissuaded.  Even  their  fears 


AS  SEEN  BY  HIS  CONTEMPORARIES  55 

could  not  move  him.  They  knew  the  sentiment 
in  the  capital,  and  had  dark  premonitions  of  what 
would  happen,  and  it  was  only  after  Paul  had 
remonstrated  with  them,  and  begged  them  not  to 
break  his  heart  by  their  tears,  that  they  bowed 
to  the  inevitable,  feeling  that  it  must  be  the  will 
of  God.  Jerusalem  was  not  solidly  hostile  to 
him.  In  that  great  stronghold  of  conservatism, 
there  were  welcoming  hands  and  sympathetic 
hearts.  The  officers  of  the  Jerusalem  Church 
were  friendly,  but  cautious.  They  knew  that 
the  prejudice  against  Paul  was  fierce  and  danger¬ 
ous,  and  so  they  suggested  to  him  a  course  of  ac¬ 
tion  which  might  possibly  soften  the  hostile  feel¬ 
ing.  Paul  from  first  to  last  had  the  deep  respect 
of>  James  and  Peter  and  John.  Peter  was  speak¬ 
ing  for  them  all  when  he  wrote — “Our  beloved 
Brother  Paul.”  The  leaders  of  the  mother 
church  never  repudiated  the  language  which 
James  used  in  writing  the  report  of  the  Jerusalem 
council — “Our  beloved  Barnabas  and  Paul,  men 
that  have  hazarded  their  lives  for  the  name  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.” 

If  Paul  was  ready  to  hazard  his  life  for  Jesus, 
others  were  ready  to  hazard  their  lives  for  him. 
A  man  and  his  wife,  Aquila  and  Prisca,  were 
among  the  foremost  of  Paul’s  friends.  To  use 
Paul’s  own  phrase,  “They  laid  down  their  necks” 
for  his  life.  Many  were  willing  to  do  this.  Paul 
aroused  in  men  passionate  devotion  to  him.  When 


56 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


he  sang  in  prison,  he  did  not  sing  alone.  Silas 
was  singing  with  him.  It  was  not  a  solo  but  a 
duet.  He  always  had  fellow  workers,  fellow 
soldiers,  fellow  prisoners.  We  never  see  him  en¬ 
tirely  alone.  Even  when  his  fortune  was  at  its 
lowest,  Luke  was  still  with  him.  It  was  possible 
to  say  of  himself  in  every  stage  of  his  career,  “I 
am  harried  but  not  hemmed  in,  perplexed  but 
not  in  despair,  persecuted  but  not  abandoned, 
struck  down  but  not  destroyed.” 


V 

HIS  SINCERITY 


V 


HIS  SINCERITY 

Is  he  sincere?  That  is  our  first  question  con¬ 
cerning  any  man  who  offers  himself  as  a  moral 
leader.  Does  he  speak  the  truth?  Does  he  mean 
what  he  says?  Are  his  motives  really  what  they 
seem?  Is  he  honest?  Can  he  be  depended  on? 
If  he  is  hollow-hearted,  we  will  not  listen  to  him. 
We  have  no  time  to  waste  upon  deceivers. 

We  are  sure  that  Paul  was  genuine.  This  is 
the  first  thing  we  are  sure  of.  We  may  question 
his  wisdom,  and  mistrust  his  judgment,  and  be 
skeptical  as  to  the  correctness  of  his  opinions, 
and  suspect  his  fairness  to  opponents,  and  lack 
confidence  in  his  processes  of  reasoning,  but  we 
cannot  doubt  his  sincerity.  He  comes  so  close  to 
us  in  his  letters,  that  on  a  point  like  this  we  can¬ 
not  be  mistaken.  In  a  formal  treatise  on  history 
or  science  or  theology,  a  man  can  hide  himself 
behind  his  subject,  but  in  a  friendly  letter,  the 
whole  man  comes  inevitably  to  the  front.  When 
one  is  writing  to  a  friend  on  a  subject  of  vital 
importance  to  them  both,  one  cannot  play  the 
role  of  a  deceiver.  That  is  contrary  to  nature. 


59 


6o 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


When  a  teacher  is  writing  to  his  pupils  about 
things  they  have  learned  or  ought  still  to  learn, 
he  cannot  say  one  thing  and  mean  something 
else.  That  contradicts  human  nature  as  we  know 
it.  Paul’s  letters  are  so  straightforward,  so  un¬ 
studied,  and  so  spontaneous,  that  his  actual  self 
stands  out  revealed.  His  letters  ring  true.  One 
cannot  sit  down  and  read  them  through  and  come 
away  feeling  he  has  been  reading  the  pious  medi¬ 
tations  of  a  rogue.  Honesty  has  a  note  which 
even  the  father  of  lies  cannot  counterfeit. 

Paul  was  vividly  conscious  of  his  sincerity, 
and  was  constantly  asserting  it,  because  it  was  so 
frequently  assailed.  Wherever  he  went  there 
were  men  who  tried  to  make  him  out  a  liar.  This 
cut  him  to  the  quick.  Nothing  is  so  painful  to  a  « 
conscientious  man  as  insinuations  that  what  he 
says  and  does  is  hypocritical.  From  his  youth 
up,  Paul  had  been  intensely  conscientious.  He 
#  was  a  conscientious  Pharisee  before  he  became 
a  conscientious  Christian.  He  put  himself  under 
rigorous  discipline  to  keep  his  conscience  void  of 
offense  toward  God  and  toward  men.  This  was 
a  cardinal  principle  of  his  whole  life.  When  he 
persecuted  Christians,  he  did  it  because  he  be¬ 
lieved  he  ought  to  do  it,  and  now  as  a  Christian 
he  says  he  is  doing  the  things  which  he  is  con¬ 
vinced  he  ought  to  do.  In  preaching  Jesus,  he  is 
obedient  to  a  heavenly  vision,  and  “woe  is  me,” 
he  exclaimed,  “if  I  do  not  do  it!”  His  constant 


HIS  SINCERITY 


61 


effort  was  to  keep  on  good  terms  with  his  con¬ 
science  and  it  was  a  source  of  joy  to  him — so  he 
wrote  to  the  Corinthians — that  his  conscience  ap¬ 
proved  what  he  had  done  in  Corinth,  He  urges 
Timothy  to  hold  fast  to  a  good  conscience,  and 
warns  him  against  men  who  speak  lies,  being 
“seared  in  their  conscience  as  with  a  hot  iron.” 
It  was  his  boast  before  the  Sanhedrin,  that  he  had 
lived  in  all  good  conscience  before  God  until  that 
very  day. 

We  are  not  interested  just  now  in  the  teaching 
of  Paul,  except  in  so  far  as  his  teaching  throws 
light  on  his  character.  A  dishonest  man  can 
praise  honesty,  and  it  is  easy  to  extol  virtues 
which  one  does  not  himself  practice.  But  some¬ 
thing  can  be  learned  of  a  man’s  character  by  the 
way  in  which  he  teaches,  by  the  enthusiasm  and 
persistency  with  which  he  drives  a  truth  home, 
by  the  frequency  with  which  he  comes  back  to  it, 
and  by  the  way  it  kindles  his  soul.  When  Paul 
says  to  the  Colossians,  “Lie  not  one  to  another,” 
he  says  it  with  such  passion  that  we  are  certain 
he  is  expressing  his  innermost  heart.  He  had 
lived  a  long  time  in  Ephesus  and  knew  what  a 
city  that  was  for  liars,  and  when  he  wrote  to  his 
Ephesian  converts,  he  urges  nothing  more  fre¬ 
quently  than  the  duty  of  laying  aside  falsehood, 
and  telling  one  another  the  truth.  Not  only  does 
individual  character  fall  to  pieces  under  the  pas¬ 
sion  of  moral  deceit  but  society  itself  crumbles, 


62 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


if  men  are  not  truthful,  because  we  are  organi¬ 
cally  one,  so  Paul  teaches.  How  incredible  that 
a  man  should  see  so  clearly  the  deadly  conse¬ 
quences  of  deceit  and  express  so  forcefully  his 
condemnation  of  it,  and  at  the  same  time  be  a 
man  of  dishonest  heart !  And  yet  this  was  the  sin 
with  which  Paul  was  charged  all  through  his 
Christian  life. 

It  is  painful  to  hear  him  denying  it.  “I  am 
telling  you  the  truth,”  he  writes  to  the  Romans, 
“what  I  say  is  no  lie  when  I  assure  you  that  I 
suffer  constant  anguish  of  heart  because  of  the 
unbelief  of  my  people.”  To  the  Galatians  he 
writes — “What  I  write  to  you  is  the  truth,  before 
God  I  am  not  lying.”  He  puts  himself  under 
oath  again  and  again.  When  he  relates  to  the 
Corinthians  the  amazing  record  of  his  hardships, 
he  goes  on  to  add,  “God  knows  that  I  am  not 
lying.”  Such  a  story  did  indeed  sound  fabulous, 
and  he  knew  there  were  men  in  Corinth  who 
would  say  it  was  all  a  hoax,  and  so  he  feels  con¬ 
strained  to  call  God  to  witness  that  he  is  speak¬ 
ing  the  truth.  Even  to  Timothy  he  wrote,  “When 
I  say  I  was  appointed  a  teacher  to  the  Gentiles, 
I  am  speaking  the  truth,  I  am  not  lying.”  He 
seems  to  have  gotten  into  the  habit  of  saying,  “I 
am  not  lying,”  because  he  was  always  haunted 
with  the  fear  that  some  one  was  distrusting  his 
word.  That  was  one  of  the  crosses  he  had  to 
bear.  He  is  always  calling  God  to  witness  that 


HIS  SINCERITY 


63 


he  is  speaking  the  truth.  When  he  tells  the  Thes- 
salonians  that  he  did  not  flatter  them,  he  calls 
God  in  as  a  witness,  and  when  he  tells  the  Ro¬ 
mans  that  he  makes  mention  of  them  in  his  pray¬ 
ers,  he  calls  in  God  as  a  witness  again.  When  he 
tells  the  Corinthians  why  he  did  not  come  to  see 
them,  he  falls  back  on  God  forthwith  as  his  wit¬ 
ness.  He  carried  this  too  far.  The  only  excuse 
for  him  is  that  he  lived  in  an  atmosphere  poi¬ 
soned  by  suspicion,  and  that  his  sensitive  soul 
writhed  under  the  insinuations  that  his  words 
were  not  true.  It  is  pitiful  to  hear  him  saying 
to  the  Corinthians — “We  wronged  no  man,  we 
corrupted  no  man,  we  took  advantage  of  no  man. 
Did  I  take  advantage  of  you  by  any  one  whom 
I  have  sent  unto  you?” 

To  Paul,  Jesus  was  the  incarnation  of  truth. 
God  was  in  him  reconciling  the  world  to  himself. 
Paul  was  Jesus’s  servant.  Paul  took  all  his  or¬ 
ders  from  Jesus.  To  be  like  Jesus  was  his  deep¬ 
est  ambition.  Paul  knew  what  Jesus  thought 
of  hypocrites.  Jesus  was  a  man  in  whose  mouth 
there  was  no  guile.  To  bear  witness  to  the  truth 
was  his  mission  in  the  world.  Paul  is  his  Am¬ 
bassador.  It  is  his  work  to  reproduce  so  far  as 
possible  the  traits  of  Jesus  in  his  own  soul.  That 
a  man  swayed  by  this  conviction  should  go  on 
year  after  year  saying  one  thing  and  believing 
another  thing,  is  a  supposition  too  preposterous 
to  be  entertained  by  any  healthy  mind.  Every- 


64 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


thing  points  in  the  direction  of  Paul’s  sin¬ 
cerity. 

But  we  must  have  some  proof  of  a  man’s  in¬ 
tegrity  beyond  his  own  personal  assertion.  And 
that  proof,  Paul  abundantly  supplies.  His  man¬ 
ner  of  life  demonstrates  the  sincerity  of  his  pro¬ 
fessions.  When  men  lie,  they  lie  to  secure  some 
advantage,  either  for  themselves  or  for  their 
family,  or  for  their  friends.  Many  men  lie  for 
money,  others  lie  for  advancement,  and  others  lie 
to  make  or  save  a  reputation.  Men  do  not  lie 
when  they  know  that  by  the  lie  they  tell,  they  are 
going  to  forfeit  everything  which  the  world  counts 
dear.  Paul  at  the  age  of  thirty  had  brilliant  pros¬ 
pects.  Because  of  his  ability  and  education  and 
noble  character,  all  doors  were  open  to  him.  No 
one  knows  how  high  a  place  he  might  have  won  in 
the  Jewish  world  had  he  never  become  a  Chris¬ 
tian.  By  saying  that  he  had  seen  Jesus  alive 
after  the  crucifixion,  he  put  an  end  forever  to  all 
hope  of  earthly  advancement.  There  was  no  room 
for  him  anywhere,  either  in  Jerusalem  or  in  Tar¬ 
sus.  Every  avenue  was  blocked — every  door  was 
locked  and  barred.  His  own  family  cast  him  off. 
His  old  friends  turned  against  him.  His  fellow 
students  in  Jerusalem  gave  him  the  cold  shoul¬ 
der.  A  man  does  not  tell  lies  to  bring  upon  him 
such  afflictions  as  that.  He  exposed  himself  to 
the  ridicule  and  vituperation  of  all  the  people  in 
the  world  who  had  opinions  worth  regarding. 


HIS  SINCERITY 


65 


From  the  hour  of  his  conversion  onward,  he  was 
a  persecuted  man.  No  matter  where  he  went,  his 
life  was  always  in  danger.  In  every  land  he  was 
sure  of  hardships  and  tribulation.  He  was  at  the 
mercy  both  of  the  Gentiles  and  the  Jews.  Both 
of  them  jailed  him  and  flogged  him  whenever  they 
got  a  chance.  His  existence  was  a  living  death. 
But  he  went  right  on  asserting  that  he  had  seen 
Jesus.  If  it  was  a  lie,  it  was  a  costly  one.  Paul 
made  no  money  out  of  it.  When  he  was  old,  all 
that  he  possessed  except  the  clothes  on  his  back, 
was  an  old  overcoat  and  a  few  books.  He  made 
no  reputation  by  it.  On  the  contrary  he  lost  his 
good  name.  Men  took  his  reputation  and  tore  it 
to  tatters  and  scattered  them  on  the  winds.  Like 
his  Master,  Paul  made  himself  of  no  reputation. 
To  some  he  seemed  crazy,  and  to  others  he  had 
a  devil.  He  was  reviled  and  defamed,  treated, 
as  he  said,  as  the  scum  of  the  earth,  the  very  re¬ 
fuse  of  the  world,  but  he  kept  right  on  declaring 
that  he  had  seen  Jesus.  He  must  have  seen  him 
or  he  would  not  have  said  so  at  so  frightful  a 
cost.  When  he  thought  of  his  career,  he  was  re¬ 
minded  of  the  gladiators  doomed  to  die  in  the 
amphitheater.  Just  as  those  wretches  furnished 
in  their  sufferings  and  death  a  spectacle  for  great 
crowds  to  look  at,  so  were  he  and  his  fellow 
apostles  a  tragic  show  for  the  entertainment  of 
the  world.  In  his  own  graphic  phrase,  he  died 
every  day.  Now,  a  liar  is  not  capable  of  so 


66 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


heroic  a  feat.  A  rogue  is  not  equal  to  such  a 
rigorous  test.  A  deceiver  is  made  of  flimsier 
stuff.  Men  do  not  tell  lies  to  increase  their  mis¬ 
ery.  Paul  by  his  conduct  furnished  an  irrefuta¬ 
ble  demonstration  that  what  he  said  he  believed 
to  be  true. 

The  demonstration  becomes  all  the  more  im¬ 
pressive  and  convincing,  because  of  the  long 
years  through  which  it  was  carried.  It  is  not 
impossible  to  endure  suffering  for  a  day  or  a 
week  or  even  a  year,  but  no  man  in  his  right  mind 
will  go  on  suffering  through  half  a  lifetime  for 
what  he  knows  is  a  falsehood.  Paul’s  martyr¬ 
dom  is  thrilling  because  it  is  so  long  drawn  out. 
His  crucifixion  extended  through  thirty  years. 
Only  a  heart  fortified  by  the  consciousness  of  be¬ 
ing  in  possession  of  the  truth  could  ever  endure 
so  severe  an  ordeal.  ‘‘The  love  of  Christ  con¬ 
strains  me,”  was  the  way  he  expressed  the  com¬ 
pulsion  which  he  felt  upon  his  soul.  There  is  no 
surer  way  of  drawing  out  of  one’s  mind  every 
suspicion  of  Paul’s  insincerity,  than  to  read  the 
record  of  some  of  the  things  which  he  suffered. 
The  list  of  hardships  is  by  no  means  complete, 
but  is  sufficient  to  awe  the  heart.  He  declares 
that  on  five  different  occasions,  he  had  been 
beaten  with  thirty-nine  stripes  by  the  Jews.  At 
three  different  times  he  had  been  flogged  with  the 
Roman  rods.  Once  he  had  been  stoned  almost 
to  death.  Three  times  he  had  been  shipwrecked. 


HIS  SINCERITY 


67 


and  a  whole  day  and  an  entire  night,  he  had 
floated  on  the  surface  of  the  deep.  His  life  had 
often  been  in  danger  from  swollen  rivers,  and 
from  brigands  and  bandits,  from  bigoted  Jews, 
and  from  pitiless  foreigners.  He  had  often  been 
in  peril  in  cities,  and  also  in  the  wilderness.  He 
had  faced  death  in  storms  upon  the  water,  and 
in  fiercer  storms  upon  the  land  where  cruel  and 
treacherous  men  had  done  their  utmost  to  over¬ 
whelm  him.  He  had  labored  hard  through  many 
a  day,  and  lain  awake  many  a  night.  Often  had 
he  been  hungry,  and  often  had  he  suffered  from 
thirst.  Sometimes  he  had  been  benumbed  by  the 
cold  because  of  lack  of  clothing.  Besides  all 
these  physical  hardships,  there  was  a  vast  mass 
of  mental  affliction,  at  which  he  can  only  hint, 
the  numberless  problems  rolled  on  him  by  the 
harassed  and  helpless  churches,  converts  perse¬ 
cuted  and  perplexed  looking  to'  him  for  comfort 
and  guidance.  But  no  matter  how  many  perils 
and  obstacles  confronted  him,  or  how  many  suf¬ 
ferings  overtook  him,  he  went  tfiumphantly  on, 
saying — “None  of  these  things* move  me!”  They 
would  certainly  have  moved  a  cheat. 

It  is  always  interesting  to  note  a  man’s  be¬ 
havior  in  the  apparent  presence  of  death.  On 
three  different  occasions  we  see  the  Apostle  look 
death  in  the  face  without  wincing — once  when 
the  mob  was  on  the  point  of  killing  him  in  the 
temple  court,  once  when  his  ship  was  wrecked  on 


68 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


the  Mediterranean,  and  once  when  he  sat  in  prison 
in  Rome  calmly  waiting  the  end.  In  all  three  in¬ 
stances,  there  was  not  a  word  indicative  of  the 
spirit  of  a  man  who  had  been  playing  a  false 
pr.rt  and  is  going  soon  to  meet  his  Judge.  As 
soon  as  he  gets  a  chance  to  speak  to  the  mob,  he 
begins  to  tell  the  old  story  a  hundred  times  re¬ 
peated,  of  how  he  had  seen  Jesus  at  the  Damas¬ 
cus  gate.  And  in  the  Roman  prison  instead  of 
repudiating  his  belief,  he  reaffirms  it  saying — 
“I  know  whom  I  have  trusted,  and  I  am  certain 
he  is  able  to  keep  what  I  have  put  into  his  hands 
till  the  Great  Day.”  One  might  be  able  to  say 
with  Festus  that  Paul  was  crazy:  it  is  impossible 
to  say  he  was  insincere. 

Here  then  is  rock  on  which  it  is  possible  to 
build.  We  have  found  an  honest  man,  and  out  of 
an  honest  heart  all  sorts  of  good  things  can  be  ex¬ 
pected.  It  is  the  man  Paul,  and  not  his  interpre¬ 
tation  of  the  fall  of  man,  or  the  death  of  Jesus, 
who  is  to  give  us  strength  and  hope  in  wrestling 
with  our  problems  and  fighting  our  battles.  Paul 
had  a  striking  way  of  talking  about  himself.  He 
was  of  humble  heart,  but  it  is  instructive  to  note 
how  large  a  place  he  fills  in  his  correspondence. 
He  had  a  fashion  of  calling  attention  to  himself. 
He  did  not  hesitate  to  exhort  men  to  become 
what  he  was.  He  lived  a  life  that  was  so  filled 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Lord  of  Life,  that  he  could 
say — “Look  at  me!  Imitate  me!”  Luke  could 


HIS  SINCERITY 


69 


not  forget  how  Paul  on  the  beach  at  Miletus  held 
up  his  hands  before  the  eyes  of  the  Elders  of 
Ephesus  saying — “You  know  how  hard  these 
hands  worked!”  They  were  probably  stained 
and  calloused  by  the  handling  of  the  goat-hair 
cloth.  The  thread  had  left  deep  marks  on  the 
fingers.  His  hands  were  a  part  of  the  human 
epistle  which  Paul  was  asking  these  Ephesians 
to  read.  He  reminds  them  that  all  the  time  which 
was  not  spent  in  earning  his  daily  bread,  was  de¬ 
voted  to  them,  and  that  for  three  years  he  had 
admonished  and  instructed  them  day  and  night, 
oftentimes  with  his  eyes  filled  with  tears.  “In 
all  things  I  gave  you  an  example  of  how  one 
ought  to  live — working  hard  and  giving  help  to 
the  needy,  remembering  the  word  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  that  to  give  is  more  blessed  than  to  get.” 
These  men  had  no  doubt  of  Paul’s  sincerity.  He 
had  proved  it  to  them  by  living  nobly  in  their 
midst  for  a  thousand  days.  The  memory  of  his 
life  among  them,  and  the  thought  of  his  going 
away,  caused  tears  to  gush  from  their  eyes. 
Grown  men  do  not  weep  on  the  neck  of  a  scamp 
on  the  eve  of  his  departure,  nor  shower  kisses 
upon  him. 

Paul  regarded  his  whole  body  as  a  proof  of 
his  sincerity.  He  had  many  detractors  in  Gala¬ 
tia,  and  some  who  had  once  followed  him  now 
followed  him  no  more.  He  puts  up  an  impas¬ 
sioned  defense,  making  use  of  argument  and 


70 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


scripture  and  illustration  and  exhortation,  and 
every  other  homiletic  device  within  his  reach, 
but  at  the  end  he  falls  back  on  himself  as  the 
best  refutation  of  their  calumnies.  If  they 
thought  he  was  lying  when  he  said  he  had  gotten 
his  commission,  not  from  any  man  but  straight 
from  the  Lord  himself,  all  he  could  do  was  to 
ask  them  to  look  at  his  body.  After  this,  he 
said,  let  no  one  try  to  interfere  with  me  in  my 
work,  because  I  have  branded  on  my  body  the 
marks  of  Jesus.  The  stones  at  Lystra  had  left 
scars.  The  disfiguration  caused  by  the  Roman 
rods  was  still  visible.  The  Jewish  thongs  had 
cut  deep,  and  the  wounds  though  long  since 
healed  still  showed  spots  that  were  red.  Slave 
owners  in  the  first  century  had  a  custom  of  brand¬ 
ing  a  slave  so  that  wherever  he  might  be  found, 
the  ownership  of  his  master  could  be  established. 
Paul  is  the  slave  of  Jesus,  and  God  has  allowed 
Paul  to  be  branded  so  that  all  the  world  might 
know  to  what  Master  he  belongs. 

It  is  fortunate  for  the  Christian  religion  that 
at  its  very  beginning  stands  a  man  whose  per¬ 
sonality  is  distinct  and  unmistakable,  and  that 
this  man  lived  a  life  so  true  that  faith  in  his  in¬ 
tegrity  cannot  by  any  ingenious  speculations  be 
shaken.  It  was  a  fashion  once  in  certain  reckless 
circles  to  decry  the  New  Testament  as  a  dishon¬ 
est  book,  the  clumsy  creation  of  fable-makers  and 
forgers.  That  hypothesis  was  long  ago  aban- 


HIS  SINCERITY 


7 1 


doned.  Whatever  one  may  think  of  the  things 
recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  one  thing  is  cer¬ 
tain,  it  was  written  by  honest  men,  eagerly  de¬ 
sirous  of  putting  down  with  accuracy  the  things 
which  they  had  seen  and  heard  and  experienced. 
Paul  never  posed.  There  was  nothing  artificial 
about  him.  He  had  no  affectations.  He  was  in¬ 
capable  of  deceit.  If  Diogenes  in  some  other 
world  should  go  searching  with  his  lantern  for  an 
honest  man,  he  would  shout  on  reaching  Paul — 
“I  have  found  him!” 


VI 

HIS  SANITY 


VI 


HIS  SANITY 

But  sincerity  is  not  enough.  A  man  may  be 
sincere  and  still  be  unreliable.  Some  of  the  most 
dangerous  men  of  history  have  been  unmistak¬ 
ably  honest.  A  man  can  be  sincere  and  at  the 
same  time  be  a  fanatic,  or  a  visionary,  or  a  luna¬ 
tic.  Crack-brained  men  often  mean  well.  A 
man  mentally  deranged  may  be  obsessed  with  the 
idea  that  he  is  the  servant  of  God.  Religious 
people  are  sometimes  the  victims  of  hallucinations 
and  their  sincerity  renders  them  all  the  more  active 
and  dangerous. 

There  are  reasons  why  one  might  be  inclined 
to  suspect  the  healthiness  of  Paul’s  brain.  He 
was  a  man  of  visions,  and  we  are  naturally  skep¬ 
tical  of  people  who  see  things.  He  heard  voices, 
and  we  are  distrustful  of  people  who  hear  things 
which  we  do  not  hear.  He  fell  into  trances,  and 
a  man  who  does  that  is  obviously  abnormal.  He 
passed  into  ecstatic  raptures,  being  once,  on  his 
own  testimony,  carried  into  the  third  heaven,  and 
at  another  time  into  the  seventh  heaven,  and  peo- 

75 


76 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


pie  who  soar  so  high  create  in  us  a  sense  of  un¬ 
easiness.  He  spoke  with  tongues,  and  people 
who  speak  with  tongues  have  often  ended  in  the 
mad  house.  He  had  what  he  called  a  thorn  in 
his  flesh,  and  as  no  one  knows  what  that  was, 
some  theorists  endowed  with  superior  discern¬ 
ment  have  asserted  quite  confidently  that  it  was 
epilepsy.  When  one  is  once  convinced  that  Paul 
was  in  the  habit  of  having  epileptic  fits,  it  is  easier, 
at  least  for  some  persons,  to  account  for  the 
things  which  he  saw  and  the  voices  which  he 
heard. 

But  unfortunately  for  this  theory,  Paul  per¬ 
sists  in  thinking  and  acting  and  writing  as  though 
he  were  sane.  He  seems  to  be  the  very  incarna¬ 
tion  of  common  sense.  His  levelheadedness  is 
remarkable,  and  if  we  are  to  judge  from  the  gen¬ 
eral  course  of  his  conduct,  his  brain  was  robustly 
sound. 

A  man  could  scarcely  be  put  to  more  varied  or 
more  searching  tests  than  those  to  which  Paul  was 
subjected.  People  were  always  asking  him  dif¬ 
ficult  and  perplexing  questions,  and  many  of  his 
answers  are  recorded.  They  are  the  answers  of 
a  clever  and  sagacious  man.  He  was  often  im¬ 
portuned  for  advice,  and  specimens  of  his  advice 
are  spread  before  us  in  his  letters.  For  proof  of 
his  sanity,  one  need  read  only  his  First  Letter  to 
the  Corinthians.  That  letter  is  packed  full  of 
evidence  that  Paul  was  remarkably  clear  sighted 


HIS  SANITY 


77 


and  long  headed.  As  the  leader  of  a  movement 
which  was  blazing  its  way  through  a  forest  full 
of  obstacles  and  dangers  he  was  obliged  to  grap¬ 
ple  with  complicated  and  baffling  problems.  His 
solutions,  written  down  in  his  letters  prove  him 
to  have  been  a  man  of  amazing  insight.  He  sep¬ 
arated  the  incidental  from  the  essential,  the  tem¬ 
poral  from  the  eternal,  with  a  swiftness  and 
precision  which  only  a  mind  of  the  first  order 
can  exhibit.  In  such  a  realm,  a  diseased  or  dis¬ 
tracted  intellect  would  have  fumbled  and  gone 
astray. 

Paul  was  not  an  impractical  dreamer.  His 
letters  are  filled  with  ethical  maxims  which  spar¬ 
kle  like  gems.  The  Church  includes  them  among 
her  most  treasured  possessions  and  the  whole 
world  recognizes  them  as  classic  expressions  of 
common  sense.  For  instance — “All  things  are 
lawful  but  all  things  are  not  expedient.”  “Knowl¬ 
edge  puffs  up  but  love  builds  up.”  “Keep  a  check 
upon  loafers.”  “Never  lose  your  temper  with 
any  one.”  “See  that  none  of  you  pays  back  evil 
for  evil.”  “Always  aim  at  what  is  kind  to  one 
another  and  to  all  the  world.”  “Rejoice  at  all 
times.”  “Never  give  up  prayer.”  “Thank  God 
for  everything.”  “Never  let  the  sun  set  upon 
your  exasperation.”  “Give  the  devil  no  chance.” 
“Let  no  bad  word  pass  your  lips.”  “Lead  lives 
of  love.”  “Make  the  very  most  of  your  time.” 
“Never  be  anxious.”  “Let  your  love  be  a  real 


7* 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


thing.”  “Never  let  your  zeal  flag.”  “Let  your 
hope  be  a  joy  to  you.”  “Make  a  practice  of  hos¬ 
pitality.”  “Bless  those  who  make  a  practice  of 
persecuting  you.”  “Associate  with  humble  folk.” 
“Never  be  self-conceited.”  “Never  pay  back  evil 
for  evil  to  any  one.”  “Do  not  let  evil  get  the  bet¬ 
ter  of  you:  get  the  better  of  evil  by  doing  good.” 
“Prove  all  things,  hold  fast  to  that  which  is 
good.”  All  of  these  and  a  hundred  others  are 
eternally  sound  and  perennially  refreshing.  The 
world  will  never  outgrow  them.  Men  do  not  write 
such  maxims  in  short  intervals  between  epileptic 
fits ! 

Paul  was  a  master-thinker.  His  letter  to  the 
Romans  is  one  of  the  immortal  products  of  the 
human  reason.  Some  of  the  greatest  intellects  of 
the  Christian  centuries  have  reveled  in  the  sweep 
of  its  vision  and  have  exhausted  their  strength 
in  trying  to  master  its  dominant  ideas.  Men  do 
not  come  out  of  a  debilitating  spasm  to  write  in 
this  style. 

Paul  was  not  a  visionary.  He  wasted  no  time 
in  fantastic  imaginings,  or  in  bootless  quests. 
He  had  a  horror  of  beating  the  air.  He  gives 
us  no  pictures  of  heaven  or  hell,  indulges  in  no 
elaborate  descriptions  of  the  bliss  of  the  blessed 
or  the  woes  of  the  lost.  He  is  not  tormented  by 
a  daft  eagerness  to  lift  the  veil.  He  has  no  itch¬ 
ing  desire  to  communicate  with  those  who  have 
passed  into  the  world  of  the  dead.  The  Witch 


HIS  SANITY 


79 


of  EncTor  had  no  attraction  for  him.  His  mind 
is  everywhere  and  always  healthy. 

Paul  was  not  a  fanatic.  He  had  no  hanker¬ 
ing  after  martyrdom.  He  escaped  his  enemies 
whenever  escape  was  possible.  He  did  not  think 
it  ignoble  to  be  let  down  in  a  basket  from  the 
wall  of  Damascus,  nor  did  he  hesitate  to  run  off 
in  the  dark  from  his  enemies  in  Thessalonica. 
He  had  no  foolish  ambition  to  suffer  for  the  sake 
of  suffering.  He  knew  what  pain  is  and  shrank 
from  it.  He  warded  off  a  flogging  whenever  he 
could.  In  all  this  he  played  the  part  of  a  sensible 
man. 

Paul  was  not  a  high  strung  and  excitable  in¬ 
valid  who  could  readily  be  thrown  into  hysterics. 
He  met  emergencies  with  an  unruffled  pulse.  He 
passed  through  stirring  crises  without  a  flutter. 
Hq  faced  unexpected  situations  with  a  mind  that 
never  lost  its  poise.  The  earthquake  in  Philippi 
upset  the  jailer  but  not  Paul.  The  mob  in  Jeru¬ 
salem  did  not  paralyze  his  mental  powers.  From 
his  speech  to  his  would-be  murderers,  we  can  see 
that  every  cell  in  the  gray  matter  of  his  brain 
was  functioning.  On  shipboard  in  the  fearful 
storm,  he  was  so  undisturbed  and  masterful,  that 
the  two  hundred  and  seventy-five  human  beings 
who  were  his  fellow  passengers  huddled  round 
him  for  heartening  and  counsel.  He  never  passed 
into  a  trance  when  a  bit  of  hard  work  was  to  be 
done.  He  never  conversed  with  angels  when  the 


8o 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


time  had  come  to  deal  with  men.  He  was  equal 
to  every  situation,  because  his  nerves  were  steady 
and  his  mind  never  played  him  false. 

Paul  was  not  afflicted  with  megalomania.  He 
had  a  high  estimate  of  himself  and  his  mission, 
but  he  never  played  the  part  of  Simon  Magus, 
giving  out  that  he  was  some  great  person,  that 
power  of  God  which  is  known  as  the  “Great 
Power.”  He  knew  he  was  a  man  and  was  keenly 
conscious  of  his  limitations.  Pie  was  careful  to 
observe  the  proprieties  of  every  situation,  and 
always  respected  the  sensibilities  of  his  audience. 
He  knew  how  to  say  the  right  thing  in  the  right 
way,  whether  he  was  speaking  to  the  peasants 
of  Lystra,  or  to  the  Intelligentia  of  Athens,  or 
to  the  crowned  heads  in  Caesarea.  A  mind  dis¬ 
eased  lacks  this  fine  discriminating  power. 

Paul  was  not  a  wild-eyed  enthusiast  swept 
away  on  the  torrent  of  his  ideas.  He  believed 
that  Christ  was  coming  soon,  but  he  did  not  talk 
about  it  all  the  time,  nor  did  he  think  that  this 
absolved  men  from  doing  their  daily  duty.  There 
were  hot  heads  in  Thessalonica  who  could  think 
and  talk  of  nothing  else  but  the  second  coming 
of  the  Lord,  and  they  were  so  obsessed  with  this 
that  they  did  no  work,  allowing  others  to  feed 
them.  Paul  was  disgusted  with  such  loafers. 
“If  a  man  will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat.” 
That  was  his  swift  and  practical  method  of  deal¬ 
ing  with  them.  The  chicken-hearted  Thessalo- 
nians  were  reluctant  to  apply  such  drastic  treat- 


HIS  SANITY 


8l 


ment,  but  Paul  urged  them  to  it.  No  gushing 
sentimentalist  was  he. 

He  could  speak  with  tongues  more  than  any 
one  else  in  Corinth,  but  he  never  allowed  this 
gift  to  run  away  with  him.  He  had  what  men 
call  “horse  sense. ”  He  nowhere  shows  his  sense 
to  better  advantage  than  when  he  deals  with  the 
turbulent  and  incoherent  crowd  in  Corinth.  This 
is  what  he  wrote :  “Unless  I  understand  the 
meaning  of  what  is  said  to  me,  I  will  appear  to 
the  speaker  to  be  talking  gibberish,  and  to 'my 
mind  he  will  be  talking  gibberish  himself.  Thank 
God  I  speak  in  tongues  more  than  any  of  you; 
but  in  church  I  would  rather  say  five  words  with 
my  own  mind  for  the  instruction  of  other  people, 
than  ten  thousand  words  in  a  tongue  which  no 
one  else  can  understand.  Brothers,  don’t  be  chil¬ 
dren  in  the  sphere  of  intelligence.”  No  flighty 
and  delirious  rhapsodist  was  Paul. 

He  held  a  high  doctrine  of  freedom.  He  ex¬ 
ulted  in  the  liberty  with  which  Christ  has  set  men 
free.  But  he  did  not  become  a  doctrinaire.  No 
one  idea,  however  glorious,  was  allowed  to  crowd 
out  all  others.  “If  a  man  is  really  free,  then  he 
can  give  up  his  liberty  for  the  sake  of  others,” 
so  he  wrote  to  men  who  were  just  beginning  to 
learn  the  meaning  of  freedom.  Only  a  man  en¬ 
dowed  with  keen  powers  of  penetration  could  see 
a  truth  like  that.  There  are  men  today,  and  quite 
clever  too,  who  cannot  see  it. 

There  was  nothing  upon  which  Paul  spoke 


82 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


with  more  vehement  emphasis  when  he  was  ar¬ 
guing  with  the  legalistic  Jews,  than  the  fact  that 
circumcision  is  not  essential  to  coming  into  right 
relations  with  God.  “Circumcision  is  nothing,” 
so  he  said.  But  he  was  not  infatuated.  There 
were  men  who  gloried  in  the  fact  that  they  had 
not  been  circumcised,  assuming  that  this  was 
especially  pleasing  to  God.  Paul  harbored  no 
such  illusion.  “Circumcision  is  nothing,  and  un¬ 
circumcision  is  nothing.  The  one  important  thing 
is  manhood.  It  is  a  new  creation,  a  higher  type 
of  man  which  God  is  looking  for.  Nothing 
counts  in  his  eyes  but  love.”  Paul  never  walked 
on  the  clouds.  He  stood  always  with  both  feet 
on  the  earth.  He  held  his  ideas  within  limits, 
and  his  enthusiasms  under  control.  Such  is  not 
the  habit  of  a  madcap. 

There  are  fourteen  witnesses  to  Paul’s  sanity 
- — his  letters  and  the  history  by  Luke.  Luke  was 
a  physician  and  had  opportunity  to  observe  Paul 
at  close  range.  To  Luke  Paul  was  not  a  victim 
of  delusions,  but  a  sane-minded  and  great¬ 
hearted  hero  whom  he  reverenced  with  his  whole 
soul.  You  can  feel  this  in  every  paragraph  of  his 
narrative.  When  Luke  begins  to  write  about 
Paul,  he  finds  it  impossible  to  write  about  any¬ 
body  else. 

With  Paul’s  letters  and  Luke’s  narrative  be¬ 
fore  us,  it  will  never  be  possible  to  convince  the 
world  that  Paul’s  mind  was  unsound.  Men  may 


HIS  SANITY 


83 


find  it  difficult  to  explain  some  of  the  Apostle’s 
experiences,  but  a  man  is  not  necessarily  insane 
because  we  cannot  altogether  understand  him. 
We  have  no  right  to  consign  a  man  to  the  psy¬ 
chopathic  ward  of  a  hospital,  because  he  had  ex¬ 
periences  which  have  never  come  to  us.  There 
are  more  things  in  heaven  and  earth  than  are 
dreamed  of  in  our  psychology.  He  is  a  reckless 
man  who  asserts  with  confidence  that  Paul  was 
an  epileptic,  and  proceeds  to  brush  aside  what 
Paul  saw  and  heard  in  his  highest  moods.  That 
is  an  easy  way  of  discrediting  the  Apostle,  and 
bringing  the  Christian  religion  into  disrepute. 
Some  have  said  that  all  men  of  genius  are  insane, 
and  others  have  relegated  all  religion  to  the  realm 
of  fancy,  and  others  have  concluded  that  all 
earthly  life  is  nothing  but  a  troubled  dream,  but 
men  of  healthy  mind  engaged  in  practical  and 
useful  work  cast  off  all  such  vagaries  and  hypoth¬ 
eses.  The  mind  when  it  is  normal  recognizes 
health  in  other  minds,  and  refuses  to  accept  the 
cynical  maxim  that  most  people  are  crazy. 

There  have  been  two  absurd  interpretations  of 
the  origin  of  Christianity,  popular  among  minds 
of  an  eccentric  type,  the  mythical  theory  and  the 
hysterical  theory.  According  to  the  first  theory, 
much  of  that  recorded  in  the  New  Testament  is 
legend,  poetry  and  myth.  All  stories  of  the  su¬ 
pernatural  are  fanciful  accretions  which  have 
gathered  perhaps  around  a  few  simple  facts  which 


84 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


no  one  can  any  longer  be  assured  of.  In  its  ex¬ 
treme  form  this  school  of  speculative  ingenuity 
gravely  propound  and  discuss  the  question — “Did 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  ever  live?”  and  the  conclusion 
laboriously  arrived  at  is  that  Jesus  is  a  myth. 
The  second  theory,  equally  flimsy,  lays  less  strain 
on  one’s  credulity  and  patience.  According  to  the 
hysterical  theory,  Christianity  arose  in  the  hallu¬ 
cination  of  a  woman  who  thought  she  saw  Jesus 
alive  after  the  crucifixion,  when  in  fact  she  never 
saw  him  at  all.  She  communicated  her  madness 
to  the  Apostles,  and  thus  did  a  new  religion  start 
out,  to  conquer  the  world.  Poor  Mary  Magda¬ 
lene  was  only  a  woman,  and  unfortunately  never 
wrote  anything  which  has  come  down  to  us,  so 
that  we  are  not  able  to  cross-question  her,  or 
subject  her  to  any  psychological  tests.  It  is  easy 
to  brush  her  aside  as  a  woman  given  to  hysteria. 
We  know  that  some  women  often  become  excited, 
and  in  their  excitement  imagine  things  which  have 
no  existence  outside  of  their  own  brain,  and  why 
should  not  Mary  of  Magdala  have  been  a  woman 
of  that  very  sort?  The  case  is  thus  easily  dis¬ 
missed.  But  Paul  is  not  so  readily  gotten  rid 
of.  To  the  embarrassment  of  his  critics  he  was 
a  man,  and  a  man  of  solid  and  unmistakable  char¬ 
acter,  and  no'  one  deserving  attention  has  ever  yet 
dared  to  pronounce  him  a  myth.  To  the  further 
discomfiture  of  those  who  theorize  about  him, 
Paul  wrote  many  letters,  thirteen  of  which  are  in 


HIS  SANITY 


85 


our  hands,  and  in  these  letters  we  have  a  mass  of 
evidence  of  his  sanity  which  can  never  be  ex¬ 
plained  away.  In  these  letters  he  does  not  move, 
except  occasionally,  in  the  realm  of  the  general 
and  abstract,  but  amid  the  concrete  complexities 
of  everyday  life.  He  answers  questions,  gives 
advice,  administers  rebuke,  delivers  timely  warn¬ 
ings,  moves  in  and  out  among  the  crowded  hap¬ 
penings  of  the  passing  days,  offering  comments, 
suggesting  lines  of  action,  and  at  every  turn  he 
gives  fresh  proof  of  possessing  a  nimble,  far¬ 
sighted  and  judicious  mind.  The  ingenious  critic 
of  the  twentieth  century  may  cry  out  with  Festus 
— “Paul,  you  are  mad!”  but  out  of  the  letters 
there  comes  a  voice,  clear  and  calm,  confident  and 
convincing,  “I  am  not  mad,  most  excellent  Critic, 
but  speak  forth  words  of  truth  and  soberness.” 


VII 


HIS  WEAKNESS 


vn 


HIS  WEAKNESS 

Why  attempt  to  cover  it  up  when  he  himself 
was  always  ready  to  confess  it?  Paul  was  one 
of  the  most  candid  of  men.  He  always  spoke 
out.  He  laid  bare  his  innermost  soul  with  the 
frankness  of  a  child.  He  was  sometimes  scared, 
and  he  admitted  it.  Sometimes  he  was  despond¬ 
ent,  and  he  did  not  conceal  it.  At  times  he  was 
discouraged,  and  he  divulged  it  without  chagrin. 
More  than  once  he  was  heartsick  and  forlorn,  and 
he  wrote  it  all  down  so  that  the  whole  church 
might  be  fully  informed.  When  we  speak  of  the 
inspiration  of  the  Apostle,  let  us  remember  that 
one  feature  of  it  was  his  willingness  to  let  the 
whole  world  know  that  he  was  sometimes  in  the 
dumps.  He  was  confident  that  the  experiences 
of  his  ancestors  in  the  wilderness  were  valuable 
because  they  furnished  warning  and  instructions 
for  all  who  came  after  them.  So  does  the  weak¬ 
ness  of  Paul  become  a  medium  of  revelation  to 
all  who  are  in  need  of  heartening. 

To  the  Romans  who  had  never  seen  his  face, 
Paul  does  not  hesitate  to  reveal  his  inner  life  up 

89 


go 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


to  the  time  he  became  a  Christian.  It  was  a  hu¬ 
miliating  story,  but  he  told  it.  He  went  about, 
he  said,  with  a  constant  sense  of  defeat.  He 
suffered  from  an  incurable  weakness  of  the  will. 
In  a  paragraph  which  has  become  the  classic  ex¬ 
pression  of  universal  experience,  he  wrote:  “I 
cannot  understand  my  own  actions.  What  I  wish 
to  do,  I  do  not  do,  and  what  I  detest  I  keep  on 
doing.  I  know  what  is  right,  but  I  do  not  do  it. 
I  have  not  the  strength  to  do  it.  I  am  acquainted 
with  the  law,  but  the  law  does  not  furnish  me 
power.  There  is  a  conflict  between  my  lower 
self  and  my  higher  self.  My  lower  self  often 
wins.  I  am  held  tight  in  a  bondage  which  I  can¬ 
not  escape.  Wretched  man  that  I  am,  who  shall 
deliver  me  out  of  the  body  of  this  death?” 

Jesus  delivered  him  from  his  sense  of  con¬ 
demnation.  When  he  became  a  Christian,  Paul 
ceased  to  feel  like  a  slave,  and  began  to  feel  like 
a  child.  God  was  his  father,  and  Paul  was  God’s 
son.  He  was  a  member  of  God’s  family,  but 
had  the  manifold  imperfections  and  frailties  of 
a  child.  The  early  struggle  went  on,  but  on  a 
higher  level  and  in  a  different  form. 

Paul  had  a  sensitive  nature.  He  was  constitu¬ 
tionally  timid.  He  shrank  from  danger.  He 
winced  in  the  presence  of  pain.  The  hatred  and 
scorn  of  men  tore  him  to  pieces.  He  was  in  a 
demoralized  condition  spiritually  when  he  began 
his  work  in  Corinth.  To  use  his  own  words,  he 


HIS  WEAKNESS 


91 


began  in  “weakness  and  fear  and  great  trem¬ 
bling.”  All  the  snap  had  been  taken  out  of  him 
by  the  blows  showered  upon  him  in  the  preceding 
weeks.  Ever  since  his  arrival  in  Europe,  his  life 
had  been  harassed  and  jeopardized  at  every  step. 
In  Philippi,  he  had  been  flogged  and  jailed,  and 
then  ordered  by  the  Roman  officials  to  leave  the 
city.  From  Thessalonica  he  had  been  driven  out 
by  a  frenzied  and  murderous  rabble.  He  had 
been  obliged  to  leave  Beroea,  because  of  the  riot¬ 
ing  his  presence  provoked  there,  and  he  had  been 
laughed  out  of  Athens  by  the  intellectual  leaders 
of  that  city.  He  came  into  Corinth  a  dispirited 
and  discredited  man.  He  was  so  full  of  alarms 
that  he  was  all  atremble.  His  work  in  Corinth 
opened  inauspiciously.  He  had  to  leave  the  syna¬ 
gogue  and  hold  his  services  in  a  private  house.  It 
looked  as  though  his  tragic  experiences  elsewhere 
were  to  be  repeated  in  Corinth.  He  went  on  with 
his  work,  but  he  was  fearfully  downcast,  and  the 
memory  of  those  somber  days  remained  with  him 
long. 

Corinth  was  not  the  only  place  in  which  Paul 
had  the  doldrums.  He  narrates  to  the  Corinthians 
an  experience  which  he  passed  through  in  Mace¬ 
donia  when  he  was  on  his  way  to  Corinth  for 
his  second  visit.  He  says  that  when  he  arrived 
in  Troas  where  he  had  gone  to  preach  and  where 
a  splendid  opportunity  was  offered  him,  he  could 
do  nothing  at  all  because  he  could  not  get  his 


Q2 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


mind  on  his  work.  The  cause  of  his  worry  was 
the  failure  of  Titus  to  appear.  And  so,  leaving 
Troas,  Paul  plunged  into  Macedonia;  but  chang¬ 
ing  his  environment  brought  him  no  relief.  There 
was  wrangling  all  around  him,  and  his  mind  was 
full  of  fears.  His  soul  was  oppressed  by  gloomy 
forebodings.  Terrifying  imaginations  unnerved 
him.  He  did  not  become  himself  again  until 
Titus  arrived  with  favorable  news  from  Corinth. 
Such  moods  were  probably  not  uncommon.  He 
relates  to  the  Corinthians  another  of  his  experi¬ 
ences,  this  one  in  the  province  of  Asia.  He  does 
not  explain  the  nature  of  the  misfortune  which 
befell  him  there,  but  he  pictures  his  condition  in 
vivid  words.  He  declares  that  he  was  crushed. 
More  was  rolled  upon  him  than  he  could  stand. 
He  thought  he  was  going  to  die.  He  felt  sure 
of  it.  The  last  vestige  of  hope  expired.  Like 
many  another  man  in  an  hour  of  dejection,  he 
could  think  of  nothing  but  the  cemetery. 

He  realized  to  the  full  how  fragile  he  was. 
One  day  after  dwelling  on  the  divine  illumina¬ 
tion  which  had  been  given  to  him,  he  went  on  to 
add — “We  have  this  treasure  in  earthen  ves¬ 
sels.”  He  was  indeed  exceedingly  human,  and  he 
realized  it  to  the  full.  His  sensitiveness  made  life 
serious  and  sometimes  burdensome.  He  suffered 
pain  more  keenly  than  many  men  do.  His  suffer¬ 
ings  were  more  intense  than  those  of  men  who 
are  coarse-grained  and  stolid. 


HIS  WEAKNESS 


93 


He  had  a  habit  of  meditating  on  the  hardships 
he  had  passed  through.  He  dwelt  on  them  be¬ 
cause  they  had  left  a  deep  mark  on  him.  “We 
are  pressed  on  every  side,  we  are  perplexed,  pur¬ 
sued,  smitten  down.”  That  is  the  way  he  de¬ 
scribed  his  life  to  the  Corinthians.  Late  in  life, 
he  was  still  ruminating  on  the  things  he  had  suf¬ 
fered  at  Antioch  and  Iconium  and  at  Lystra  on 
his  first  missionary  journey  long  years  before. 
In  his  very  last  letter,  he  dwells  upon  them  in  a 
way  which  shows  they  are  yet  fresh  in  his  mind. 
Those  persecutions,  those  awful  persecutions! 
How  could  he  ever  forget  them?  One  can  al¬ 
most  feel  him  quiver  and  cringe  as  one  reads  his 
words. 

Paul  is  enrolled  among  the  world’s  heroes,  and 
we  do  not  easily  think  of  heroes  as  the  victims 
of  fear.  A  hero,  we  imagine,  is  a  man  of  cour¬ 
age,  and  a  man  of  courage  is  not  acquainted  with 
fear.  This  shows  our  ignorance  of  heroes.  A 
hero  is  not  a  man  who  has  never  quaked  with 
fear,  but  a  man  who  has  quaked  and  subdued  his 
quaking.  T  >ul  is  not  ashamed  to  avow  that  he 
had  quaked.  In  confessing  this  he  adds  a  cubit  to 
his  stature  in  the  estimation  of  all  who  know  how 
to  appreciate  courage.  Many  a  man  is  too  cow¬ 
ardly  to  admit  that  he  has  ever  had  cowardly 
feelings.  Paul  holds  back  nothing. 

He  told  his  friend  Luke  that  unless  God  had 
helped  him  he  could  never  have  gotten  on.  Luke 


94 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


in  his  history  gives  three  instances  of  this  divine 
assistance.  Once  in  Corinth  when  Paul’s  spirits 
were  at  low  tide,  the  Lord  said  to  him  in  a  vision 
in  the  night.  “Don’t  be  afraid,  Paul.  Go  right 
on  speaking,  no  one  is  going  to  hurt  you.”  We 
read  Paul’s  condition  in  the  words  which  were 
spoken  to  him.  His  courage  was  oozing  out. 
“Don’t  be  afraid,”  said  the  Lord.  He  was  won¬ 
dering  whether  it  was  worth  while  to  go  on. 
“Go  on !”  said  the  Lord.  He  was  afraid  that  the 
Jews  would  trap  and  kill  him.  “Nobody  is  going 
to  hurt  you,”  said  the  Lord.  In  that  night  Paul 
became  convinced  that  his  fears  were  groundless, 
and  that  there  was  still  work  in  Corinth  for  him 
to  do. 

A  similar  experience  came  to  him  in  the  City 
of  Jerusalem  the  night  after  the  trial  before  the 
council.  The  world  had  grown  dark  again.  There 
was  no  light  anywhere.  Paul’s  dreams  and 
plans  of  seeing  Rome  had  been  dashed  to  pieces. 
He  was  a  prisoner  in  a  cell  in  the  castle  in  Jeru¬ 
salem.  Every  route  to  Rome  was  blocked.  His 
enemies  had  gotten  him  at  last  completely  in  their 
power.  Like  Elijah,  Paul  crawled  under  a  juni¬ 
per  tree,  feeling  that  the  fate  which  had  befallen 
so  many  servants  of  the  Lord  had  now  over¬ 
taken  him.  While  there  in  the  depths  of  despair, 
a  still  small  voice  began  saying  to  him — “Cheer 
up,  Paul.  You  are  going  to  testify  concerning 
me  at  Rome.”  We  can  always  read  Paul’s  state 


HIS  WEAKNESS 


95 


of  mind  in  what  the  Lord  is  reported  to  have 
said.  God  always  speaks  level  to  our  needs. 
When  he  says  “Be  courageous!”  it  is  because  our 
fears  are  on  the  point  of  overwhelming  us.  If 
he  said  “Cheer  up!”  it  is  because  we  are  fathoms 
deep  in  gloom.  When  he  says,  “You  shall  surely 
go  to  Rome,”  it  is  because  we  have  given  up  all 
expectations  of  ever  seeing  that  longed-for  city. 
Paul  was  not  ashamed  to  tell  Luke  how  hopeless 
he  was  in  his  castle  cell.  But  in  his  despondency, 
a  fresh,  brave  feeling  of  confidence  surged  up  in 
his  soul.  Who  could  have  created  that  feeling 
but  God? 

It  was  necessary  that  Paul  be  rescued  again 
and  again.  Like  the  rest  of  tis,  he  was  repeatedly 
meeting  situations  which  were  too  much  for  his 
strength.  He  was  not  the  imperturbable  demigod 
whom  the  pious  imagination  loves  to  picture.  In 
a  shipwreck,  for  instance,  he  felt  very  much  like 
ordinary  mortals.  No  man  feels  quite  comfort¬ 
able  on  a  ship  which  seems  doomed  to  go  to  the 
bottom.  In  such  a  crisis,  one’s  mind  acts  rapidly 
and  runs  over  all  the  plans  which  must  now  re¬ 
main  forever  unfulfilled.  Every  man  is  a  bundle 
of  programs  and  expectations,  and  when  death 
stares  him  in  the  face,  his  grip  at  once  loosens 
on  all  he  had  hoped  to  do  and  be.  No  man,  no 
matter  how  great  a  hero  or  true  a  saint,  on  board 
of  a  ship  which  is  driven  by  a  hurricane  onward 
and  onward  nobody  knows  whither,  under  a  sky 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


9 6 

i 

which  has  neither  sun  by  day  nor  stars  by  night, 
and  over  a  sea  so  tempestuous  that  it  is  necessary 
to  lower  all  the  sails,  and  throw- overboard  most 
of  the  cargo,  and  at  last  even  the  tackling  of  the 
ship  itself,  can  keep  the  lamp  of  hope  burning. 
When  Luke  says — “All  hope  that  we  should  be 
saved  was  now  taken  away/'  he  includes  himself 
and  Paul  also  in  the  hopeless  company.  Paul 
like  the  others  had  been  submerged  by  his  fears. 
But  God  came  to  his  rescue.  In  the  night  ah 
irrepressible  conviction  was  born  in  his  soul.  Paul 
calls  it  a  messenger  from  God.  “Don’t  be  afraid,” 
said  a  voice,  “you  are  going  to  stand  before 
Caesar!”  Day  after  day,  Paul  had  said  to  hirm 
self,  “No  Rome  for  me.”  And  then  at  last  his 
whole  outlook  suddenly  brightened.  It  was  of 
God.  He  was  a  man  of  valor,  but  he  was  not 
strong  enough  to  keep  on  hoping  for  deliverance 
on  board  a  rudderless  ship  in  the  grip  of  a  hur¬ 
ricane  on  a  savage  sea  under  a  wild,  black  sky, 
which  for  fourteen  days  had  put  out  the  sun  and 
the  stars,  without  divine  assistance.  Jesus  could 
have  slept  in  the  storm. 

Paul  makes  another  confession  of  his  weak¬ 
ness  when  he  asks  the  Thessalonians  to  pray  for 
him.  He  was  an  apostle,  but  he  was  not  strong 
enough  to  do  his  work  without  the  help  of  hum¬ 
ble  men  and  women  who  could  hold  up  his  hands 
in  prayer.  He  prayed  of  course  for  himself,  but 
his  own  prayers  were  not  enough.  His  work  was 


HIS  WEAKNESS 


97 


so  far  beyond  his  powers,  that  other  men  must 
assist  him  in  opening  the  channels  of  divine 
grace. 

He  beg*  the  Ephesians  to  pray  for  him  that  he 
may  open  his  mouth  boldly.  There  is  a  vast  dif¬ 
ference  between  opening  one’s  mouth  boldly,  and 
opening  it  timidly,  apologetically,  softly.  It  is  one 
thing  to  speak  in  whispers,  and  a  far  different 
thing  to  put  a  trumpet  to  the  lips  and  blow  a  blast 
which  will  stir  to  rage  the  whole  hierarchy  of 
evil  minded  men.  It  is  only  the  men  who  speak 
boldly  who  make  a  dent  in  the  life  of  their  genera¬ 
tion.  No  man  can  lead  who  does  not  blow  a 
trumpet.  It  comes  upon  us  with  a  shock  of  sur¬ 
prise,  this  request  of  Paul  for  concerted  prayer 
that  he  may  speak  boldly  as  he  ought  to  speak. 
Was  he  sometimes  tempted  to  speak  guardedly, 
to  hold  back  those  truths  most  likely  to  give  of¬ 
fense,  to  tone  down  those  passages  which  were 
sure  to  provoke  criticism  or  give  rise  to  misun¬ 
derstandings,  to  file  off  the  edge  of  his  rebukes 
and  to  reduce  the  heat  of  his  condemnation  of 
ideas  which  were  erroneous  and  customs  which 
were  wrong?  Of  course  he  was.  Even  Apostles 
are  often  tempted.  Paul  in  this  request  to  the 
Ephesians  confesses  that  he  is  tempted  at  times 
to  tone  down  his  message.  So  difficult  was  it 
to  open  his  mouth  boldly  and  proclaim  fully  and 
freely  the  whole  truth  which  Christ  had  revealed 
to  the  world  that  it  was  necessary  for  him  to 


q8 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


summon  all  his  converts  to  come  to  his  assist¬ 
ance.  The  whole  Church  had  to  get  on  its  knees 
to  make  Paul  strong  enough  to  open  his  mouth 
boldly. 

The  struggle  which  Paul  was  engaged  in  from 
the  days  of  his  youth,  was  continued  under  dif¬ 
ferent  forms  to  the  end  of  his  life.  How  fierce 
the  struggle  was  is  indicated  by  the  figure  he 
makes  use  of  in  describing  it.  He  likens  it  to  an 
athletic  contest  in  which  both  strength  and  skill 
are  indispensable  to  victory.  He  told  the  Cor¬ 
inthians  that  life  for  him  as  for  them  was  a  bat¬ 
tle,  and  that  he  had  to  keep  fighting  all  the  time. 
He  did  not  go  at  it  like  a  man  blindly  beating 
the  air,  but  kept  his  eye  steadily  on  his  antagonist, 
which  was  his  lower  self.  “I  buffet  my  body,” 
he  says,  in  words  supplied  by  our  Revised  transla¬ 
tion,  but  the  word  ‘ "buffet”  does  not  do  justice 
to  the  world  which  Paul  used.  What  he  says  is — 
“I  ‘bruise’  my  body.  I  hit  it  so  hard  that  it  shows 
the  marks  of  my  blows.”  He  is  determined  to 
make  himself  master  of  it,  for  he  is  haunted  by 
the  fear  that  after  telling  others  how  to  win  ac¬ 
ceptance  with  God,  he  himself  may  be  rejected. 
This  is  the  language  of  a  man  keenly  conscious 
of  his  weakness. 

Along  with  his  spiritual  weakness,  there  went 
a  physical  infirmity,  the  nature  of  which  we  do 
not  know.  He  had  a  remarkable  constitution,  but 
like  many  another  strong  man,  he  was  not  im- 


HIS  WEAKNESS 


99 


mune  to  disease.  Sometimes  his  illness  inter¬ 
fered  sadly  with  his  work.  On  one  occasion,  of 
which  we  are  informed,  it  compelled  him  to  alter 
his  entire  program.  It  was  because  of  some  bod¬ 
ily  affliction  that  he  turned  aside  from  his  ap¬ 
pointed  route  to  preach  to  the  Galatians.  But 
his  physical  malady  did  not  handicap  him,  it 
helped  him.  The  Galatians  were  so  sorry  for 
him  that  their  hearts  went  out  to  him  in  affection 
and  reverence.  They  accepted  his  message  as 
from  a  messenger  of  God.  Thus  in  his  weakness 
did  he  become  strong. 

Just  as  his  physical  weakness  brought  him 
closer  to  the  Galatians,  so  does  his  spiritual  weak¬ 
ness  bring  him  closer  to  us.  The  Paul  who  se¬ 
renely  discourses  on  “Predestination”  and  “Fore¬ 
ordination”  is  like  a  God  seated  on  a  philosophi¬ 
cal  Olympus.  We  cannot  come  where  he  is.  We 
cannot  feel  that  he  is  touched  with  a  feeling  of 
our  infirmities.  But  the  Paul  who  is  so  badly 
frightened  that  he  is  in  a  tremble,  who  becomes 
emotionally  so  upset  that  he  cannot  get  his  mind 
on  his  work,  who  sometimes  feels  so  blue  that  he 
cannot  even  preach  the  Gospel,  who  falls  into 
sloughs  of  despond  and  flounders  there  until  G6d 
pulls  him  out,  who  gets  so  dispirited  and  nervous 
that  he  imagines  he  is  going  to  die,  and  who  loses 
his  temper  in  a  courtroom  so  completely,  that  he 
says  something  for  which  he  must  apologize  in 
the  presence  of  a  great  company  of  distinguished 


IOO 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


men,  is  a  man  whose  pulsebeat  helps  us  because 
we  feel  sure  he  is  our  brother.  We  do  not  need 
an  oracle  so  much  as  a  companion.  The  man 
who  will  help  us  most  is  not  a  philosopher,  but  a 
friend.  We  need  a  saint,  not  a  saint  after  the 
medieval  type,  but  a  saint  in  the  New  Testament 
sense  of  the  word,  a  man  dedicated  to  God,  called 
to  be  holy,  and  honestly  striving  amid  many  blun¬ 
ders  and  failures  to  live  worthily  of  his  high 
calling. 

The  world  will  forever  need  the  encourage¬ 
ment  of  a  man  who  felt  the  agony  of  fear  and 
overcame  it,  who  fell  into  the  pit  of  despondency 
and  climbed  out  again,  who  was  defeated  and 
became  discouraged  but  pressed  steadily  on,  and 
who  having  a  nature  which  demanded  constant 
discipline  and  castigation,  kept  up  the  good  fight 
until  the  crown  was  won.  In  his  despondencies 
and  depressions,  his  dark  forebodings  and  dismal 
imaginings,  his  sinkings  of  heart  and  seasons  of 
loneliness,  his  smarts  under  disappointment,  and 
his  pangs  of  discouragement,  his  worryings  and 
wonderings,  his  wrestlings  and  flounderings,  he  is 
indeed  our  brother.  Jesus  never  fell.  He  goes 
before  us.  Paul  fell.  He  walks  by  our  side. 


VIII 

HIS  STRENGTH 


VIII 


HIS  STRENGTH 

It  is  not  Paul’s  weakness  but  his  strength  which 
first  impresses  the  reader  of  his  life  and  letters. 
The  weakness  is  faithfully  presented  but  it  does 
not  catch  the  eye.  It  is  no  weakling  who  stands 
before  us,  but  a  man  of  might.  He  first  bursts 
upon  us  as  a  man  of  overflowing  energy  and  in¬ 
domitable  and  conquering  will.  He  is  dragging 
women  and  men  before  tribunals  which  are  con¬ 
demning  them  to  prison  and  to  death.  He  is  tire¬ 
less  in  his  persecutions  and  carries  them  even 
into  cities  far  away.  That  is  Paul  the  Pharisee, 
and  Paul  the  Christian  is  not  a  whit  less  master¬ 
ful.  He  dominates  the  situation  again  and  again, 
and  in  the  closing  pages  of  Luke’s  history,  we  see 
him  the  virtual  captain  of  a  ship  he  is  sailing  on 
as  a  prisoner,  with  nearly  three  hundred  men 
hanging  on  his  lips  for  guidance.  Where  he  sits 
is  always  the  head  of  the  table. 

A  man  shows  his  strength  by  his  mastery  of 
circumstances.  Weak  men  are  the  slaves  of  the 
things  which  happen.  They  are  moulded  by  their 
environment.  A  strong  man  makes  use  of  his 


103 


104 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


circumstances  for  his  own  advancement.  If  they 
are  adverse  circumstances,  he  uses  them  with  all 
the  greater  alacrity  and  success.  He  may  not 
change  them,  but  he  will  compel  them  to  con¬ 
tribute  to  his  spiritual  enrichment.  He  cannot 
change  the  direction  of  the  wind  which  is  blowing 
in  his  face,  but  he  can  get  out  of  it  a  stimulus 
which  will  help  him  toward  his  destination.  He 
cannot  change  the  current  against  which  he  is 
rowing,  but  he  can  by  contending  with  the  cur¬ 
rent  so  increase  his  strength  as  to  become  able 
to  reach  his  desired  landing.  He  cannot  escape 
his  environment,  but  out  of  it  he  can  draw  nutri¬ 
ment  for  the  nourishment  of  his  growing  soul. 
Paul  never  allowed  conditions  to  mar  or  over¬ 
come  him.  The  world  in  which  he  lived  did  its 
utmost  to  crush  him,  but  it  never  quite  succeeded. 
“Harried  but  not  left  behind,  perplexed  yet  not 
unto  despair,  persecuted  but  not  abandoned, 
struck  down  but  not  destroyed,”  such  was  his 
exultant  description  of  his  life.  He  used  every 
experience  as  a  stepping  stone  to  something 
higher.  He  converted  all  waste  into  wealth.  The 
keenest  disappointment  of  his  life  was  to  go  into 
Rome  a  prisoner,  but  he  does  not  allow  his  chain 
to  daunt  him  or  hold  him  down.  He  uses  it  as  an 
instrument  for  advancing  his  cause.  He  is  by 
law  chained  to  a  soldier,  and  the  soldier  can  no 
more  get  away  from  him  than  he  can  get  away 
from  the  soldier.  This  gives  him  a  chance  to 


HIS  STRENGTH 


105 

tell  the  soldier  about  Jesus.  As  one  soldier  after 
another  comes  on  duty,  Paul  has  in  the  course  of 
a  few  months  a  good-sized  congregation  which  has 
listened  to  his  message.  The  spirit  of  the  New 
Religion  has  gradually  permeated  the  very  heart 
of  the  Roman  army.  Like  leaven  it  is  working 
in  the  palace  of  the  Caesars.  Moreover,  his  chain 
has  proved  to  be  a  means  of  grace  to  the  Chris¬ 
tians  in  Rome.  Their  courage  revived  when 
they  saw  how  Paul  bore  his  affliction.  The  chain 
did  not  depress  them  but  gave  them  heart.  When 
they  saw  how  Paul  rose  above  his  chain,  they 
forgot  their  own  disabilities  and  began  to  speak 
in  the  tone  of  conquerors. 

There  was  no  hardship  or  sorrow  which  he 
was  not  able  to  use  in  the  advancement  of  his 
work.  Even  the  preaching  of  men  who  were  his 
enemies,  and  who  proclaimed  a  garbled  message 
in  a  spirit  which  was  contrary  to  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  did  not  cause  him  to  repine.  It  made 
him  happy  to  think  that  Christ’s  name  was  being 
carried  to  circles  which  had  not  hitherto  heard 
it,  and  he  felt  sure  that  the  mere  name  would 
awaken  curiosity  and  lead  to  further  investiga¬ 
tions.  Men  of  weak  nerves  are  always  in  trepida¬ 
tion  lest  some  one  may  overturn  the  truth.  Any¬ 
thing  less  than  a  complete  and  orthodox  Gospel 
— and  an  orthodox  gospel  is  one  which  comes  up 
to  their  own  notion — is  certain  to  upset  the  world. 
Such  fears  are  the  creation  of  weakness.  Paul 


io 6 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


was  so  strong  that  he  could  look  unabashed  upon 
the  foolishness  and  even  the  wickedness  of  men 
and  keep  on  rejoicing.  He  went  so  far  as  to 
affirm  that  he  had  pleasure  even  in  weakness  and 
in  insults  and  in  troubles,  and  in  persecutions  and 
in  distresses.  He  found  no  pleasure  in  these 
things  in  themselves,  but  in  the  opportunity  they 
gave  him  to  learn  the  length  and  breadth  and 
height  and  depth  of  living.  Weakness  gave  him 
a  chance  to  draw  on  the  deeper  reservoirs  of 
strength,  insults  furnished  him  with  an  opportu¬ 
nity  to  develop  and  exhibit  his  self  control,  trou¬ 
bles  opened  the  door  to  wider  fields  of  self-knowl¬ 
edge,  persecutions  and  distresses  presented  him  a 
greater  arena  in  which  to  play  the  man.  Only  a 
strong  man  can  laugh  at  the  things  which  make 
ordinary  mortals  groan.  On  the  Island  of  Malta, 
Paul  shook  into  the  fire  a  viper  which  had  fas¬ 
tened  on  his  hand.  That  is  what  he  was  always 
doing.  One  deadly  thing  after  another  fastened 

itself  on  him,  but  he  shook  them  all  off,  and  to 

1 

the  amazement  of  onlookers  stood  forth  unin¬ 
jured. 

Every  man  carries  within  him  a  world  which 
must  be  conquered.  A  weak  man  never  conquers 
his  inner  self.  He  is  the  constant  prey  of  his  in¬ 
clinations  and  emotions,  the  victim  of  his  humors 
and  moods.  If  he  has  physical  defects,  they 
weaken  and  sour  him.  If  they  do  not  embitter 
him,  they  bring  him  to  a  querulous  temper  or 


HIS  STRENGTH 


107 


plaintive  disposition.  It  requires  great  strength 
to  carry  with  one  through  seven  days  of  the  week, 
a  physical  blemish  which  is  visible  to  all.  Paul 
had  a  bodily  affliction.  He  called  it  a  “thorn  in 
the  flesh.”  He  implored  God  to  take  it  away.  He 
went  to  him  again  and  again.  The  thorn  however 
was  not  removed,  and  one  day  Paul  discovered 
that  it  was  possible  for  him  to  do  without  any¬ 
thing  which  God  was  unwilling  he  should  have. 
That  was  a  great  discovery.  It  opened  his  eyes 
to  the  fact  that  strength  can  come  to  one  through 
weakness,  and  that  weakness  can  minister  to 
power.  He  realized  probably  for  the  first  time 
that  one  never  feels  so  keenly  the  power  of  the 
Eternal  as  when  one  is  most  intensely  conscious 
of  his  own  lack  of  strength.  He  began  to  say  to 
himself — “When  I  am  weak,  I  am  strong.” 

Paul  was  a  man  of  moods,  and  as  is  the  case 
with  all  passionate  natures,  his  moods  had  in 
them  something  of  the  force  of  the  tides  of  the 
sea.  Many  a  man  is  the  slave  of  his  moods. 
They  dictate  to  him  the  program  of  the  day. 
They  break  down  his  firmest  resolutions,  and 
sweep  his  intentions  completely  away.  A  man 
of  strength  masters  his  moods.  He  does  things 
not  because  he  feels  like  doing  them,  but  because 
he  ought  to  do  them.  When  he  feels  like  hug¬ 
ging  the  shore,  if  duty  calls,  he  unfurls  the  sail 
and  steers  boldly  out  to  sea.  When  he  does  not 
feel  like  working,  he  seizes  his  task  with  renewed 


io8 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


vigor  and  lays  out  plans  for  still  larger  labors. 
Paul  tells  us  how  he  conquered  one  of  his  most 
dejected  moods.  It  was  in  Corinth.  He  had 
been  cast  out  of  four  cities  one  after  the  other, 
and  now  Corinth  seemed  likely  to  treat  him  in 
the  same  way.  The  Corinthians  were  looking 
down  on  him  with  a  supercilious  smile.  His 
heart  was  weighted  down  with  anxiety  and 
gloom.  He  had  an  impulse  to  change  his  course 
or  give  up  altogether,  but  the  impulse  was  seized 
by  the  throat  and  throttled.  He  made  up  his 
mind  to  go  right  on  as  he  had  been  going,  pro¬ 
claiming  Jesus  as  the  promised  Messiah.  He 
deepened  his  determination  to  continue  to  em¬ 
phasize  the  things  which  awakened  resentment 
in  the  Jew  and  contempt  in  the  Greek,  the  suf¬ 
ferings  of  Jesus,  and  his  ignominious  death.  Men 
of  flabby  fiber  can  be  cowed  by  criticism  and 
chilled  by  opposition.  Men  of  strength  do  not 
flinch  or  run.  Paul  was  sensitive  to  criticism,  and 
he  craved  the  good  opinion  of  men,  but  he  made 
up  his  mind  not  to  change  his  style  in  deference 
to  the  taste  of  his  Corinthian  congregation.  He 
would  not  adopt  any  of  the  fashions  of  the  Greek 
schools.  He  would  not  pander  to  his  hearers  by 
using  the  tricks  of  rhetoric  or  elocution.  He 
would  not  rely  on  the  charm  of  chiseled  and  pol¬ 
ished  speech,  even  though  it  brought  him  com¬ 
mendation.  He  would  continue  to  speak  simply 
and  clearly  the  things  which  he  felt  God  wanted 


HIS  STRENGTH 


iog 


him  to  say.  A  weak  man  in  the  pulpit  readily 
succumbs  to  the  temptation  to  appear  learned. 
Many  a  man  has  been  ruined  as  a  preacher  by 
putting  on  the  airs  of  a  scholar.  If  a  man  itches 
for  the  approbation  of  the  people  of  culture  and 
high  social  position,  and  embroiders  and  weakens 
his  message  in  order  to  get  it,  he  may  win  the 
compliment  of  being  clever,  he  certainly  cannot 
be  put  down  in  the  list  of  the  strong.  Paul  was 
too  forceful  a  man  to  be  caught  by  the  demands 
of  the  worldlings  who  love  oratorical  display. 
He  listened  with  disdain  to  the  comments  of  his 
superficial  critics,  and  went  triumphantly  on  his 
way.  Criticism  never  drove  from  the  pulpit  a 
man  who  deserved  to  stay  there. 

But  a  man’s  strength  is  tested  to  the  utmost, 
not  by  his  enemies  but  by  his  friends.  More  men 
are  ruined  by  their  friends  than  by  their  foes. 
To  hurt  the  feelings  of  his  friends,  or  to  disap¬ 
point  their  expectations,  or  to  pursue  a  course  of 
action  of  which  they  disapprove,  causes  a  sensi¬ 
tive  man  poignant  grief.  It  requires  all  the 
strength  which  a  man  can  muster  to  stand  up 
against  his  friends.  Paul  loved  his  converts  de¬ 
votedly.  He  had  a  genius  for  friendship  and 
nothing  moved  him  so  deeply  as  a  display  of  af¬ 
fection.  When  he  started  for  Jerusalem  with  the 
money  he  had  collected  for  the  poor  Christians 
there,  his  friends  urged  him  not  to  go.  They 
pointed  out  the  danger  of  his  proposed  visit.  They 


no 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


pictured  in  dark  colors  what  was  almost  sure  to 
happen.  They  bombarded  him  with  repeated  pro¬ 
testations  and  the  most  affectionate  appeals,  but 
he  could  not  be  persuaded.  He  felt  it  was  his 
duty  to  go,  and  no  one  could  swerve  him  from 
the  path.  He  admitted  to  his  friends  at  Miletus 
that  he  did  not  know  what  might  happen  to  him 
in  Jerusalem,  and  he  told  them  he  felt  certain 
that  they  would  never  see  him  again,  but  though 
tears  were  on  his  cheeks,  he  set  his  face  stead¬ 
fastly  to  go  to  Jerusalem.  In  town  after  town  he 
was  assured  that  imprisonment  and  afflictions 
were  waiting  for  him  in  Jerusalem,  but  these 
predictions  did  not  cause  him  to  turn  back.  His 
one  desire  was  not  to  prolong  his  life  but  to  finish 
his  work,  and  his  work  would  not  be  done  unless 
he  carried  that  money  to  Jerusalem.  His  tenac¬ 
ity  of  will  was  extraordinary.  When  he  arrived 
in  Csesarea,  the  protests  became  more  impas¬ 
sioned  and  importunate,  but  they  were  of  no 
avail.  They  stirred  his  heart  mightily,  but  they 
did  not  weaken  his  determination.  The  climax 
was  reached  when  Luke  joined  the  company  of 
those  who  begged  him  not  to  go.  When  Paul 
saw  the  tears  in  Luke’s  eyes,  and  heard  the  be¬ 
seeching  words  from  Luke’s  lips,  his  heart  quiv¬ 
ered  and  in  agony  he  cried — “What  do  you  mean 
by  weeping  in  this  way?  Don’t  you  know  you 
are  breaking  my  heart?”  After  that,  there  was 
nothing  more  to  be  said.  Horses  were  ordered, 


HIS  STRENGTH 


III 


and  the  start  was  made  on  the  final  stage  of  the 
journey  to  Jerusalem.  Just  as  Jesus  brushed 
Peter  aside  on  his  way  to  Jerusalem,  so  did  Paul 
put  behind  him  his  devoted  friend  Luke.  Both 
had  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with,  and  both  were 
straitened  until  it  was  accomplished. 

It  is  in  time  of  storm  that  a  man  reveals  his 
strength.  Paul  lived  his  entire  Christian  life  at 
the  center  of  a  tempest.  The  church  of  God 
has  been  swept  by  many  a  hurricane,  but  by 
none  of  greater  violence  than  the  controversy 
which  shook  to  its  foundations  the  Apostolic 
Church.  The  Apostles  in  presenting  the  religion 
of  Jesus  to  the  Gentile  world,  were  confronted  at 
once  with  the  question — “What  is  the  relation  of 
Christianity  to  Judaism?”  Judaism  had  her  holy 
books,  her  hallowed  institutions,  her  sacred  laws. 
What  shall  the  Jewish  Christians  do  with  these? 
And  what  shall  the  Gentile  Christians  do  with 
them?  When  a  man  becomes  a  Christian,  is  he 
longer  bound  by  the  Mosaic  legislation?  Does 
Jesus  obliterate  Moses?  For  instance,  is  circum¬ 
cision  of  permanent  validity?  The  Book  of  Gen¬ 
esis  says  it  was  commanded  by  God.  Jesus  did 
not  rescind  the  commandment.  On  the  contrary 
he  declared  that  not  the  fraction  of  one  letter  of 
the  law  would  pass  away  until  all  was  fulfilled. 
Is  not  circumcision,  then,  essential  to  salvation? 
Must  not  Gentile  converts  be  circumcised?  Can 
a  man  be  a  worthy  Christian  without  obeying 


112 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


the  Mosaic  law  ?  If  the  great  Jewish  festivals  and 
the  Levitical  ceremonies  were  all  ordained  of  God, 
must  not  all  men  who  wish  to  please  God  observe 
them? 

Upon  all  such  questions  good  men  were  sure 
to  differ.  Many  Jews  on  becoming  followers  of 
Jesus  could  not  give  up  at  once  beliefs  as  dear  to 
diem  as  life,  or  surrender  traditions  and  customs 
which  were  woven  into  their  affections  and  con¬ 
duct.  It  was  only  natural  that  they  should  think 
that  observances  which  had  been  so  serviceable 
to  them  would  be  equally  profitable  for  others. 
If  Jewish  ceremonies  prescribed  by  God  were 
wholesome  for  the  Jewish  soul,  why  should  not 
these  same  ceremonies  work  for  the  salvation  of 
the  Gentile  soul  also?  Was  it  not  the  duty  of 
the  Jewish  Christian  to  insist  that  his  Gentile 
brother  should  subject  himself  to  the  same  dis¬ 
cipline  which  had  brought  rich  blessings  to  him? 

But  there  was  another  viewpoint,  and  to  Paul 
this  viewpoint  was  the  right  one.  Religion — Paul 
thought — is  not  a  matter  of  obedience  to  law,  but 
of  personal  relation  to  Jesus  Christ.  Circumci¬ 
sion  is  not  permanently  binding.  The  Jewish  fes¬ 
tivals  are  not  obligatory  forever.  The  Levitical 
ritual  is  not  for  all  generations.  Religion  is  not 
a  ceremony,  but  a  spirit,  not  a  dogma  to  be  ac¬ 
cepted,  nor  a  rite  to  be  performed,  but  a  life  to  be 
lived.  No  ceremony  is  of  the  essence  of  the 
Christian  religion.  A  man  is  religious  not  be- 


HIS  STRENGTH 


113 

cause  of  his  obedience  to  institutions  and  laws, 
but  because  he  has  in  his  heart  the  life  of  God. 
As  soon  as  a  man  becomes  a  new  man  in  Christ, 
he  is  set  free  from  the  Mosaic  yoke  of  bondage. 

In  the  great  controversy  which  threatened  the 
very  life  of  the  church,  Paul  stood  forth  as  the 
champion  of  liberty:  “For  freedom  did  Christ 
set  us  free;  stand  fast,  therefore,  and  be  not  en¬ 
tangled  again  in  a  yoke  of  bondage!”  This  was 
his  watchword  through  a  long  campaign.  His 
devotion  to  freedom  made  him  a  warrior.  He 
was  always  on  the  defensive — always  defending 
himself  against  some  fresh  attack.  He  was  con¬ 
stantly  on  the  aggressive,  also,  delivering  ter¬ 
rific  blows  upon  those  who  were  trying  to  drag 
Christianity  down  to  the  level  of  a  ceremonial 
or  legal  religion.  Only  a  man  of  resolute  spirit 
could  have  carried  out  his  principle  to  all  its  con¬ 
sequences  in  the  face  of  such  opposition  both 
without  and  within.  Paul  was  sensitive  to  the 
sensibilities  of  others.  He  was  in  the  habit  of 
making  himself  all  things  to  all  men  in  order  that 
he  might  win  them  for  Christ.  He  never  need¬ 
lessly  gave  ofifense.  He  took  pains  not  to  put 
himself  in  apparent  antagonism  to  the  Jerusalem 
Church.  He  did  his  best  to  maintain  the  unity 
of  the  spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace.  But  he  could 
not  be  induced  to  surrender  a  cardinal  principle. 
Many  good  men  are  prolific  in  concessions  for 
the  sake  of  peace,  they  will  concede  almost  every- 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


1 14 

thing.  For  the  good  01  tue  cause,  they  will  ac¬ 
cept  almost  any  compromise.  In  order  to  spare 
the  feelings  of  others  and  to  avoid  the  danger  of 
dissension  or  disruption,  they  will  barter  away 
their  principles,  and  get  the  world  into  a  muddle 
which  future  generations  must  pay  a  high  price 
for  getting  out  of.  It  is  conducive  to  tranquillity 
to  allow  conscientious  and  determined  men,  how¬ 
ever  wrong-headed,  to  have  their  own  way.  Only 
men  of  extraordinary  strength  can  keep  men  of 
good  intentions  and  mistaken  notions  from  drag¬ 
ging  religion  down  to  lower  levels.  The  Church 
has  suffered  more  from  the  weakness  of  good 
men  than  from  the  strength  of  bad  men. 

In  this  conflict  with  the  Judaizers,  Paul  saw 
that  the  whole  future  of  Christianity  was  at 
stake,  and  so  he  threw  himself  into  the  battle  with 
the  full  force  of  his  aroused  nature.  His  letter 
to  the  Galatians  is  an  impressive  revelation  of 
his  strength.  The  letter  is  a  bundle  of  thunder¬ 
bolts.  It  was  a  Jupiter-type  of  man  who  forged 
and  hurled  them.  He  tells  the  Galatians  what  he 
did  once  in  Jerusalem.  He  put  his  foot  down 
on  the  proposal  to  circumcise  his  Greek  convert 
Titus.  Men  of  great  influence  suggested  it,  and 
this  is  what  came  of  it:  “To  whom  we  gave 
place  in  the  way  of  subjection,  no,  not  for  an 
hour.”  “Not  for  an  hour” — that  is  the  phrase 
men  used  in  the  day  of  the  sun  dial,  In  the  age 
of  clocks,  we  say,  “Not  for  a  minute,”  or  “Not 


HIS  STRENGTH 


115 

for  a  second.”  Paul  did  not  listen  for  an  instant 
to  the  proposal  that  Titus  be  circumcised.  He 
spurned  the  idea.  He  was  in  Jerusalem,  the  hot¬ 
bed  of  conservatism.  He  was  surrounded  by  men 
— zealous  and  devout — who  were  as  conscientious 
as  he  was.  To  them  it  was  a  scandal  that  Titus 
was  not  circumcised.  It  would  have  been  easy 
to  circumcise  this  Greek.  His  circumcision  would 
have  been  oil  on  troubled  waters.  There  were 
high  authorities  in  Jerusalem  on  the  side  of  cir¬ 
cumcision,  but  Paul  brushed  all  the  authorities 
aside.  Because  a  man  has  a  great  reputation  or 
sits  in  a  high  place,  it  does  not  follow  that  other 
men  are  bound  to  accept  his  opinions.  Had  James 
and  the  whole  Jerusalem  Church  sided  against 
him,  Paul  would  have  still  held  his  ground.  On 
incidentals,  he  was  yielding  as  wax,  on  funda¬ 
mentals  he  was  like  flint.  Christ  had  died  to  set 
men  free,  and  for  the  maintenance  of  that  free¬ 
dom,  Paul  was  ready  to  fight  to  the  last  ditch. 

The  battle  had  to  be  fought  not  only  in  Jeru¬ 
salem,  but  in  Antioch  also.  Even  in  this  seat 
of  liberalism,  it  was  necessary  to  struggle  for  the 
liberty  wherewith  Christ  had  set  men  free.  The 
Judaizers  went  everywhere.  They  were  voluble 
and  plausible.  They  dogged  Paul’s  steps  from 
city  to  city.  They  sowed  the  seed  of  distrust  in 
every  congregation.  They  did  their  utmost  to 
upset  his  work.  They  made  such  an  impression 
in  Antioch  that  Peter  himself  dared  not  live  up 


Il6  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

to  his  convictions.  Even  Barnabas  succumbed. 
And  Paul  stood  up  and  opposed  them  all!  In 
both  Christian  capitals,  he  blew  a  thrilling  note 
of  defiance  to  all  who  would  make  the  Christian 
religion  a  revised  form  of  Judaism.  He  pro¬ 
claimed  to  all  generations  that  religion  is  not 
ceremonialism,  but  a  matter  of  the  heart.  A  man 
is  a  Christian  when  he  becomes  a  new  creation 
in  Christ,  and  as  soon  as  he  becomes  a  new  cre¬ 
ation  in  Christ,  he  is  free.  Only  a  man  of  enor¬ 
mous  strength  could  have  won  this  victory  for 
mankind.  It  made  Christianity  the  universal  and 
final  religion. 


HIS  PRIDE 


IX 


HIS  PRIDE 

Pride  is  a  virtue,  but  it  passes  so  easily  and 
frequently  into  a  vice,  that  in  the  popular  mind 
its  proper  rank  is  often  lost  sight  of.  In  its  es¬ 
sence  pride  is  high-mindedness,  a  lofty  sense  of 
personal  dignity  and  worth;  but  this  state  of 
mind  easily  slides  into  haughtiness,  and  haughti¬ 
ness  glides  into  arrogance,  and  arrogance  into 
insolence  and  scorn.  Or  pride  may  degenerate 
into  vanity  which  is  self-conceit,  and  love  of 
show,  and  an  overfondness  of  praise.  Paul  was 
not  vain  but  proud.  He  was  high-minded,  con¬ 
scious  of  his  dignity,  and  had  a  horror  of  any¬ 
thing  that  was  unworthy  of  him.  In  the  Greek 
sense  of  the  word,  he  was  an  aristocrat,  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  a  superior  class,  one  of  his  country’s  best 
citizens.  In  the  Roman  sense,  he  was  a  patrician, 
a  member  of  the  nobility,  separated  from  the 
plebeians.  In  the  American  sense,  he  was  a  blue- 
blood,  a  member  of  one  of  the  old  and  honorable 
families. 

Paul  was  proud  of  his  race.  When  he  faces  the 
mob  from  the  castle  stairs,  he  begins  by  saying 

1 19 


120 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


— “I  am  a  Jew.”  He  says  it  with  a  tone  of  deep 
pride.  He  was  not  unmindful  of  the  sins  of  his 
race,  but  he  did  not  forget  its  virtues  and  achieve¬ 
ments.  He  would  not  allow  men  to  think,  be¬ 
cause  he  depreciated  the  importance  of  circum¬ 
cision,  that  he  denied  to  the  Jewish  race  a  unique 
place  and  distinction.  When  men  asked  him  what 
advantage  a  Jew  had,  if  his  teaching  was  sound, 
his  reply  was  that  to  the  Jews  had  been  entrusted 
the  oracles  of  God.  When  the  Jews  treated  him 
as  a  renegade  and  traitor,  he  met  them  with  the 
assertion :  “I  am  a  Hebrew  of  Hebrews.”  He 
would  not  allow  any  one  to  forget  that.  When 
his  enemies  boasted  of  their  ancestry,  he  matched 
them.  “Are  they  Hebrews?  So  am  I.  Are 
they  Israelites?  So  am  I.  Are  they  the  seed  of 
Abraham?  So  am  I.”  He  loved  his  countrymen 
with  an  undying  love,  and  gloried  in  being  one 
of  them. 

He  was  proud  of  his  tribe.  He  dwelt  upon 
the  fact  that  he  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Benja¬ 
min.  It  was  a  little  tribe,  but  one  full  of  gal¬ 
lantry  and  devotion,  winning  renown  on  many  a 
battlefield  of  old.  It  is  the  martial  fervor  of  a 
Benjamite  which  flashes  out  in  the  impassioned 
exhortation — “Put  on  the  whole  armor  of  God!” 
He  was  no  doubt  proud  of  his  name,  although 
this  is  not  expressly  stated  in  his  letters.  He 
bore  the  name  of  a  king. 

He  was  proud  of  his  religion  and  of  his  God- 


HIS  PRIDE 


121 

fearing  parents.  He  was  circumcised  on  the 
eighth  day  according  to  the  traditional  Jewish 
custom.  He  was  proud  of  that.  His  parents 
were  scrupulous  observers  of  the  law.  They 
were  Pharisees.  He  himself  was  a  Pharisee,  and 
exulted  in  that  fact.  He  loved  the  name,  and 
never  discarded  it.  After  he  had  been  a  Chris¬ 
tian  many  years,  he  still  called  himself  a  Pharisee. 
Standing  before  the  council  in  Jerusalem,  he  said 
• — “Brothers,  I  am  a  Pharisee,  a  son  of  Phari¬ 
sees.”  This  was  not  a  trick  to  split  the  council 
by  saying  something  a  little  less  than  the  truth. 
It  was  the  calm  statement  of  a  spiritual  fact.  In 
his  fundamental  attitude  and  outlook,  Paul  was 
always  a  Pharisee.  The  Pharisees  were  the  most 
devout  and  spiritual  people  in  the  Jewish  Church. 
They  most  stressed  religious  values,  and  placed  a 
spiritual  interpretation  on  the  universe  and  life. 
He  was  glad  that  he  belonged  to  the  sect  which 
was  most  loyal  to  God,  and  most  zealous  in  its 
efforts  to  bring  the  whole  world  to  him.  He  was 
a  Pharisee  and  a  Christian  at  the  same  time. 

He  was  proud  of  his  city.  It  was  not  in  Pal¬ 
estine,  but  it  was  famous  and  glorious.  The 
commercial  metropolis  of  Cilicia,  it  was  prosper¬ 
ous  and  opulent,  and  enjoyed  the  distinction  of 
being  one  of  the  world’s  principal  seats  of  learn¬ 
ing.  Students  flocked  to  her  schools  from  many 
lands,  and  her  philosophers  and  scholars  went 
abroad  to  enlighten  the  world.  Tarsus  was 


122 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


Paul’s  birthplace,  and  it  was  there  he  grew  up. 
When  Claudias  Lysias  mistook  Paul  for  an  Egyp¬ 
tian,  he  was  met  with  the  dignified  reply — “I  am 
a  citizen  of  Tarsus!” 

He  was  proud  of  his  Roman  citizenship.  It 
had  come  to  him  from  his  father.  It  brought 
him  honours  and  rights  which  he  valued  highly. 
When  the  Chief  Captain  in  Jerusalem  ordered 
him  to  be  scourged,  Paul  said  nothing  until  he 
had  been  strapped  to  the  pillar,  and  then  turning 
to  the  centurion,  he  asked :  “Is  it  lawful  for  you 
to  scourge  a  man  who  is  a  Roman  before  he  has 
been  tried?”  The  centurion  carried  the  word  to 
the  Chief  Captain,  and  the  Chief  Captain  hurried 
to  Paul  saying,  “Tell  me,  are  you  a  Roman?” 
With  pride  in  his  eyes,  Paul  answered,  “Yes.”  I 
too  am  a  Roman,”  said  the  Chief  Captain,  “but 
I  had  to  pay  a  big  price  for  my  citizenship.”  To 
which  Paul  calmly  replied,  “I  am  a  Roman 
born.”  The  men  appointed  to  scourge  him  re¬ 
leased  him  at  once,  and  the  Chief  Captain  know¬ 
ing  that  he  had  gone  beyond  the  sanction  of  the 
law,  kept  wondering  what  trouble  the  prisoner 
might  eventually  make  him. 

Paul  had  had  experience  with  ignorant  or 
careless  Roman  officials  before.  In  Philippi, 
they  had  flogged  him  without  a  trial,  and  thrust 
him  into  prison  before  ascertaining  whether  or 
not  he  was  a  Roman.  In  the  morning,  the  Prae¬ 
tors  sent  the  Lictors  to  the  prison  with  instruc- 


HIS  PRIDE 


1 23 


tions  that  the  prisoners  be  released.  This  news 
was  gladly  announced  to  Paul  and  Silas  by  the 
jailer,  who  flung  open  the  door  and  told  them 
they  might  go.  To  his  amazement  the  prisoners 
remained  where  they  were.  Paul’s  pride  had 
been  wounded,  and  he  was  resolved  to  teach  the 
Praetors  a  lesson.  “I  am  not  going  to  come  out” 
— said  Paul — “in  this  way.  They  flogged  me  in 
public  without  a  trial,  and  now  in  public  they 
must  bring  us  out.  Tell  them  to  come  them¬ 
selves  and  fetch  us  out.”  To  their  surprise,  the 
Praetors  found  themselves  in  the  grip  of  a  high- 
spirited  and  resolute  foreigner,  who  would  not 
allow  himself  to  be  trampled  on  even  by  Roman 
Praetors.  The  officers  came  and  with  soft  voices 
and  gentle  manners  and  many  an  apology,  en¬ 
deavored  to  allay  Paul’s  irritation.  Shamefacedly 
they  conducted  the  two  prisoners  personally  out 
of  the  prison,  and  when  once  in  the  street,  they 
importuned  them  to  get  out  of  town  as  quickly 
as  they  could.  But  Paul  was  in  no  hurry.  He 
would  not  run  away,  not  in  the  sight  of  the  Prae¬ 
tors.  He  walked  leisurely  to  the  home  of  Lydia, 
called  a  church  meeting,  spoke  words  of  encour¬ 
agement  and  counsel  to  the  converts,  and  when 
he  had  completed  all  that  he  wanted  to  do,  he 
started  with  Silas  in  the  direction  of  Thessalonica. 

This  episode  in  Paul’s  life  throws  light  on  his 
interpretation  of  Jesus’  words — “Whosoever 
shall  smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him 


124 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


the  other  also.”  Whatever  that  might  mean,  Paul 
was  sure  it  did  not  mean  that  a  man  to  be  a  con¬ 
sistent  follower  of  Jesus  must  allow  men  to  wipe 
their  shoes  on  him.  A  Christian  has  a  duty  to 
perform  to  Roman  Praetors  and  other  lordly 
minded  gentlemen  who  have  a  fashion  of  ignor¬ 
ing  the  rights  of  people  who  fall  into  their  power. 
It  is  his  duty  to  reprimand  them,  and  to  let  them 
know  that  they  cannot  pursue  their  high-handed 
methods  without  protest  and  condemnation.  The 
proud  soul  of  Paul  recoiled  from  injustice, 
whether  inflicted  on  himself  or  on  others. 

This  loftiness  of  spirit  flashes  out  again  and 
again  in  his  letters  to  the  Corinthians.  Of  all 
his  churches  this  church  was  most  obstreperous 
and  most  prone  to  treat  Paul  in  a  supercilious 
way.  He  would  not  permit  it.  When  they  be¬ 
gan  to  put  on  airs  because  of  their  insight  and 
knowledge,  he  brought  them  down  by  reminding 
them  that  they  were  a  lot  of  babies,  and  that  he 
had  fed  them  on  milk.  They  had  scarcely  mas¬ 
tered  the  rudiments  of  Christian  living,  and  there¬ 
fore  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  teach  them  ad¬ 
vanced  lessons.  When  they  criticized  him,  he 
flung  back  their  criticisms  in  their  face.  There  is 
something  like  scorn  in  his  words:  “It  is  a  very 
small  thing  that  I  should  be  judged  of  you  or 
anybody  else.  The  only  judge  I  recognize  is  the 
Lord.”  To  his  Corinthian  faultfinders,  Paul  feels 
superior  in  every  way,  and  in  his  impetuosity  he 


HIS  PRIDE 


125 


becomes  ironical,  and  even  scornful.  Like  all 
proud  men,  he  is  irritated  by  the  snapping  com¬ 
ments  of  petty  wiseacres.  He  looks  down  on 
them  in  pity,  and  pours  out  words  now  of  affec¬ 
tionate  entreaty,  and  now  of  stinging  sarcasm. 
He  will  not  allow  himself  to  be  pooh-poohed  as  an 
ignorant  and  insignificant  weakling  without  re¬ 
senting  it.  Here  is  a  specimen  of  his  sarcasm : 
“You  have  your  heart’s  desire  already.  You  have 
the  blessedness  of  heaven  already.  You  have 
come  into  your  kingdom  without  my  assistance. 
We  are  fools,  but  you  are  wise.  We  are  weak, 
but  you  are  strong.  You  are  honored,  but  we  are 
in  disrepute.”  But  the  Apostle  soon  relents.  This 
is  not  his  ordinary  style.  He  drops  his  sarcasm 
and  resumes  his  natural  tone.  “I  do  not  write 
this,”  he  says,  “to  make  you  feel  ashamed,  but  to 
instruct  you  as  my  dear  children.  You  may  have 
ten  thousand  instructors,  but  you  have  only  one 
father.  I  am  your  father,  and  I  beseech  you  to 
be  imitators  of  me.” 

Paul’s  pride  comes  in  evidence  again  in  his 
comparison  of  himself  with  the  other  apostles. 
His  foes  were  always  twitting  him  on  his  infe¬ 
riority  to  the  twelve.  He  lacked  their  authority. 
They  knew  things  which  he  did  not  know.  He 
could  not  speak  as  well  as  they  spoke.  He  was  in 
fact  nobody  at  all.  All  such  chatter  stung  him. 
Even  a  lion  does  not  like  to  be  stung  by  mosqui¬ 
toes.  He  was  conscious  of  possessing  immense 


126 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


power,  and  he  could  not,  without  writhing,  have 
men  represent  him  as  a  nonentity.  “Even  if  I 
am  nobody,”  he  says,  “I  am  in  nothing  behind 
the  very  chiefest  of  the  Apostles.  Surely  I  did 
the  work  of  an  Apostle.  The  only  respect  in 
which  I  was  unapostolic,  was  in  my  refusal  to 
take  pay  for  my  work.  If  I  am  not  an  Apostle 
to  some  people,  surely  I  am  an  Apostle  to  you 
Corinthians,  for  you  are  my  work,  the  seal  set 
upon  my  Apostleship.  Am  I  not  an  Apostle? 
Suggest  whatever  test  you  will.  Have  I  not  seen 
Jesus?  I  maintain  that  I  am  not  a  whit  behind 
the  very  chiefest  of  the  Apostles.  I  am  no  speak¬ 
er,  perhaps,  but  I  possess  knowledge,  and  I  made 
that  knowledge  intelligible  to  you.” 

He  would  not  allow  other  Christian  workers 
to  be  pushed  above  him  by  men  who  were  deter¬ 
mined  to  pull  him  down.  “Are  they  ministers 
of  Christ?  Yes,  but  not  as  much  as  I  am.  In 
labors  more  abundantly,  in  prisons  more  fre¬ 
quently,  in  stripes  above  measure,  in  death  often 
— my  record  is  a  longer  one  than  theirs.”  When 
they  intimated  that  he  had  gotten  his  commission 
from  the  Apostles  in  Jerusalem,  and  that  every¬ 
thing  he  knew  had  been  imparted  to  him  by 
them,  he  flung  the  falsehood  in  their  teeth,  and 
in  hot  wrath  declared,  “The  men  of  repute  in  Je¬ 
rusalem  imparted  nothing  to  me.  I  did  not  get 
my  commission  from  men.  I  was  not  appointed 
by  any  man.  I  was  made  an  Apostle  by  Jesus 


HIS  PRIDE  127 

Christ  and  God  the  Father  who  raised  him  from 
the  dead !” 

Paul  could  not  fail  to  be  conscious  of  his  intel¬ 
lectual  and  social  superiority  to  the  other  Apostles. 
They  belonged  to  a  lower  social  caste.  They  had 
not  enjoyed  the  favoring  environment  which  Tar¬ 
sus  had  supplied.  They  had  not  had  the  advan¬ 
tage  of  a  theological  training.  They  had  never 
traveled,  and  they  lacked  his  breadth  of  vision, 
and  his  knowledge  of  the  Gentile  world.  He 
must  have  thought  of  all  this  when  his  enemies 
were  making  him  as  nothing  in  comparison  with 
the  Twelve.  By  nature  he  was  endowed  with  ex¬ 
traordinary  mental  powers,  and  a  man  so  en¬ 
dowed  cannot  remain  in  ignorance  of  the  fact. 
When  he  talked  with  James  and  John  and  Peter, 
he  must  have  unconsciously  taken  their  measure, 
and  how,  after  this,  could  he  feel  himself  a  pigmy 
by  their  side?  Paul  was  fully  conscious  of  his 
keen  intellect,  his  vigorous  and  versatile  mind, 
the  wide  scope  of  his  varied  knowledge,  and  he 
could  not  with  complacency  allow  men  of  less 
mental  stature  to  be  so  magnified  and  glorified 
as  to  blot  him  out. 

In  the  moral  realm,  he  did  not  feel  himself 
to  be  inferior.  In  sacrificing  for  Jesus  no  one 
went  beyond  him,  and  the  slander  that  he  had 
done  nothing  at  all  except  with  the  expectation 
of  gain,  cut  him  to  the  quick  and  brought  him 
to  his  feet  in  passionate  protestation.  He  was 


128 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


too  proud  to  allow  himself  to  be  lied  about  with 
impunity. 

Paul  was  proud  of  his  character.  When  he 
tells  the  Philippians  that  he  has  learned  how  to  be 
content  no  matter  what  his  circumstances  may 
be,  one  can  detect  the  note  of  satisfaction  of  a 
Stoic.  Just  as  a  Stoic — the  proudest  philosopher 
of  the  ancient  world — delighted  in  his  power  to 
live  a  life  which  was  not  dependent  on  events  or 
physical  conditions,  so  does  Paul  exhibit  the  same 
joy  in  his  ability  to  master  his  soul.  He  frankly 
told  the  Philippians  that  he  was  not  dependent  on 
their  benefactions.  He  enjoyed  them  and  was 
glad  to  receive  them,  but  they  were  not  essential 
to  the  fullness  of  his  life. 

He  was  proud  of  his  record.  It  is  a  proud 
man  whom  we  hear  declaring  in  public,  that  he 
has  lived  a  conscientious  life,  and  that  from  his 
childhood  to  old  age  he  had  made  it  a  point  to 
keep  a  clean  conscience  both  toward  God  and  to¬ 
ward  men.  He  had,  to  be  sure,  committed  a  fear¬ 
ful  wrong,  but  it  was  because  he  was  ignorant 
and  not  because  his  intentions  were  not  noble. 

As  a  Christian,  he  was  proud  of  his  invariable 
policy  never  to  accept  compensation  for  his  re¬ 
ligious  labors.  He  had  always  earned  his  living 
by  manual  labor,  and  it  gratified  his  heart  to  show 
his  friends  the  callouses  on  his  hands.  No  one 
could  ever  call  him  an  idler,  nor  could  any  one 


HIS  PRIDE 


129 

rightfully  accuse  him  of  preaching  the  Gospel  for 
money.  He  was  proud  of  that. 

He  was  proud  also  of  the  fact  that  he  had 
never  built  on  another  man’s  foundation.  He  had 
always  done  his  full  share  of  the  hard  work  to 
be  done.  He  had  not  waited  till  the  pioneer 
work  had  been  completed  by  others,  and  then  gone 
in  and  reaped  the  harvest  of  their  toil.  He  had 
made  it  his  practice  to  press  into  new  fields.  He 
had  gone  where  no  Christian  worker  had  ever 
gone.  He  had  broken  up  the  soil  of  fields  never 
before  cultivated.  He  had  blazed  a  path  through 
forests  never  penetrated  before.  He  had  laid 
foundations  for  other  men  to  build  on,  but  for 
all  of  his  own  churches  he  himself  had  laid  the 
foundation  stones.  This  gave  him  gratification. 
A  man  of  lofty  and  independent  spirit  finds  pleas¬ 
ure  in  doing  something  original  and  undertaking 
things  that  are  hard. 

He  was  proud  of  his  sufferings  as  a  slave  of 
Christ.  He  does  not  often  boast  of  them,  but 
he  frequently  refers  to  them,  and  he  refers  to 
them  in  a  way  which  indicates  that  the  thought 
of  them  gives  him  satisfaction.  He  does  not  re¬ 
call  them  to  cry  over  them,  but  to  rejoice  over 
them.  When  he  says  he  carries  about  with  him 
in  his  body  the  scars  of  Jesus,  it  is  with  the  same 
deep  gratification  that  an  old  soldier  feels  in  ex¬ 
hibiting  his  scars.  He  is  proud  that  he  has  been 


130 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


permitted  to  suffer  for  the  cause.  With  what 
exultation  he  must  have  written  this:  “I  have 
fought  the  good  fight,  I  have  finished  the  course, 
I  have  kept  the  faith.”  Conquerors  cannot  fail 
to  feel  proud  of  their  victories. 

Paul  endeavors  to  cultivate  this  spirit  of  pride 
in  his  fellow  workers.  To  Titus  he  wrote — “Do 
not  allow  anybody  to  slight  you.  Do  not  let  vol¬ 
uble  upstarts  brush  you  aside.  Do  not  permit 
bumptious  lordlings  to  look  down  on  you.  Do 
not  suffer  impertinent  egotists  to  walk  over  you.” 
This  is  the  advice  of  a  man  who  has  a  vivid 
sense  of  personal  dignity. 

To  Timothy,  he  gives  the  same  admonition. 
Do  not  let  people  scorn  you  because  you  are 
young.  Do  not  allow  elderly  men  to  speak  depre¬ 
catively  of  you  as  a  boy  because  they  are  older 
than  you  are.  Any  one  old  enough  to  set  a  good 
example  in  right  living  is  old  enough  to  deserve 
the  respect  of  men  of  all  ages. 

It  is  a  proud  old  hero  who  is  writing  thus  to 
his  son.  In  thinking  back  over  the  experiences  of 
his  long  life,  Paul  sees  how  continuously  the 
world  makes  light  of  the  religious  worker,  and 
listens  to  his  words  with  smiling  disdain.  The 
world  must  be  reprimanded  and  resisted.  Paul 
feels  that  a  Christian  man  must  have  an  abiding 
sense  of  his  dignity  and  importance.  He  must 
of  course  be  truly  humble,  but  at  the  same  time 
he  must  be  proud.  He  must  have  spirit  enough  to 


HIS  PRIDE 


131 

hold  his  head  high  in  the  presence  of  the  might¬ 
iest  and  go  forward  in  his  work,  not  with  a  swag¬ 
ger  or  strut,  but  with  the  confident  stride  of  a 
full-grown  man. 


X 

HIS  HUMILITY 


X 


HIS  HUMILITY 

In  order  to  appreciate  a  man’s  humility,  we 
must  first  measure  the  dimensions  of  his  pride. 
To  some  persons,  humility,  or  what  passes  for 
such,  is  easy.  They  have  the  native  disposition 
of  a  worm.  They  crawl  without  effort.  Of 
course,  crawling  like  a  worm  is  not  humility  but 
only  a  grotesque  caricature  of  it,  but  there  the 
those  who  think  a  wormlike  attitude  is  worthy 
of  a  man.  To  others,  humility  is  the  most  im¬ 
possible  of  all  the  virtues.  Only  with  exertion 
are  they  able  to  bow  down.  Because  humility  is 
so  foreign  to  them,  they  come  at  last  to  hate  it, 
claiming  that  it  is  a  form  of  servility,  a  vice  and 
not  a  virtue  at  all. 

Paul  was  by  nature  proud  and  imperious,  and 
therefore  lowliness  in  him  was  an  achievement. 
He  won  it  by  hanging  before  his  eyes  the  exam¬ 
ple  of  one  “who  emptied  himself,  taking  the  form 
of  a  servant,  being  made  in  the  likeness  of  men, 
and  being  found  in  fashion  as  a  man,  he  humbled 
himself,  becoming  obedient  even  unto  death.” 
If  by  humility  we  mean  holding  a  disparaging 

i35 


136 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


estimate  of  one’s  self,  then  Paul  was  not  a  humble 
man.  Paul  thought  highly  of  himself.  He  held 
his  head  high.  He  boldly  said  that  he  was  not  a 
whit  inferior  to  the  tallest  of  the  Apostles.  He 
took  no  delight  in  cultivating  the  sense  of  infe¬ 
riority.  Unlike  certain  humble  people  whom  one 
sometimes  meets,  he  never  boasted  that  he  knew 
nothing,  could  do  nothing,  and  amounted  to  noth¬ 
ing.  On  the  other  hand,  he  exulted  openly  in 
the  number  of  things  he  could  do.  If  humility  is 
meanness  of  spirit,  Paul  was  not  humble.  There 
was  nothing  in  him  of  the  sycophant  or  toady. 
He  never  cringed  or  groveled.  He  was  con¬ 
scious  both  of  the  dignity  of  his  personality  and 
the  greatness  of  his  mission. 

There  are  in  the  world  many  counterfeits  of 
humility,  many  perversions  and  abnormal  forms 
of  it.  We  do  well  first  to  study  the  humility  of 
Jesus,  to  find  out  what  humility  at  its  best  ac¬ 
tually  is,  and  then  to  make  the  acquaintance  of 
the  humility  of  Paul,  to  find  out  what  form  hu¬ 
mility  can  take  in  a  proud  nature  which  has  been 
subdued  by  Christ. 

Paul  thought  highly  of  himself,  but  no  more 
highly  than  he  ought  to  think.  He  thought  so¬ 
berly,  and  took  accurate  measurement  of  the 
abilities  which  God  had  given  him.  He  was  not 
wise  in  his  own  conceits,  but  realized  he  had  al¬ 
ways  something  more  to  learn.  “We  only  know 
bit  by  bit,  we  only  prophesy  bit  by  bit,”  so  he 


HIS  HUMILITY 


1 37 


wrote  in  the  most  beautiful  of  his  paragraphs. 
“Many  things  which  we  know  now  will  by  and  by 
be  superseded,  the  perfect  will  crowd  the  imper¬ 
fect  out.  At  present  we  see  only  the  baffling  re¬ 
flections  in  a  mirror,  but  later  on  we  shall  see 
face  to  face.  At  present  I  am  learning  bit  by 
bit,  but  some  day  I  shall  fully  understand.”  That 
is  the  confession  of  a  humble  mind. 

Paul  is  confident  of  the  reality  of  his  knowl¬ 
edge,  but  he  does  not  claim  to  know  everything. 
When  he  wrote  to  his  converts,  he  did  not  put  on 
an  air  of  infallibility.  The  scholars  have  made 
claims  for  him  which  he  never  made  for  him¬ 
self.  Because  a  man  sees  a  few  things  clearly,  it 
does  not  follow  he  can  see  everything.  A  man 
may  be  an  inspired  Apostle,  and  yet  at  many 
points  remain  ignorant.  In  answering  puzzling 
questions,  Paul  shows  refreshing  lowliness  of 
mind.  He  had  been  asked  perplexing  questions 
about  marriage,  and  in  his  answers  he  draws  a 
sharp  line  between  what  he  says  and  what  God 
says.  At  one  point  he  writes,  “I  am  not  com¬ 
manding  you ;  I  am  only  stating  what  I  think  may 
be  considered  allowable.”  Further  on  he  says, 
“These  are  my  instructions.  I  call  them  mine, 
but  they  are  really  the  Lord’s.”  Paul  is  so  sure 
of  his  ground  at  this  point  that  he  dares  speak  in 
the  name  of  the  Lord.  But  in  taking  up  the  next 
problem,  he  assures  his  readers  that  it  is  he  who 
is  speaking,  and  not  the  Lord.  He  does  not  want 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


138 

anybody  to  think  he  is  laying  down  God’s  law 
in  every  opinion  he  expresses.  When  he  comes 
to  consider  the  duties  which  parents  owe  to  their 
marriageable  daughters,  he  admits  that  he  has  no 
orders  from  the  Lord  whatever.  All  he  can  do  is 
to  give  his  opinion,  the  opinion  of  a  man  who 
because  of  God’s  faith  in  him,  may  be  trusted  to 
speak  words  which  are  wise.  At  another  point, 
he  tells  his  inquirers  what  he  thinks  is  best  for 
them  to  do,  but  he  hastens  to  explain  that  it  is 
only  his  opinion.  They  may  take  it  for  what  it 
is  worth,  and  he  is  inclined  to  think  it  has  value, 
for  he  sees  no  reason  why  he  should  not  have 
the  spirit  of  God  as  well  as  other  people. 

He  never  posed  as  an  authority  in  every  detail 
of  faith  and  conduct.  He  was  always  insisting  on 
freedom.  He  had  swift  rebuke  for  the  petty 
despots  who  set  themselves  up  as  judges  of  other 
people’s  conduct.  “Who  are  you,”  he  asks  in 
withering  scorn,  “who  make  a  practice  of  pass¬ 
ing  judgment  on  a  man  who  is  the  servant  of 
some  one  else?  To  his  own  master  that  man 
stands  or  falls.  Attend  to  your  own  business, 
and  let  him  alone!”  He  was  careful  not  to  as¬ 
sume  the  manners  of  an  autocrat  or  tyrant.  Some¬ 
times  his  language,  he  feared,  might  imply  more 
than  he  meant,  and  he  hastened  to  correct  a  pos¬ 
sible  misunderstanding  by  explaining  what  his 
attitude  actually  was.  After  using  strong  lan¬ 
guage  in  affirming  that  the  spirit  of  God  was  in 


HIS  HUMILITY 


139 


his  heart,  he  hastens  to  say  that  he  possesses  no 
right  to  lord  it  over  their  faith,  because  they 
have  their  own  standing  in  faith.  He  prefers 
to  think  of  himself  as  a  helper  of  their  joy.  He 
co-operates  with  them  as  a  fellow  worker,  and 
does  not  claim  to  be  their  ecclesiastical  dictator. 

He  was  not  a  whit  behind  the  very  greatest 
of  the  Twelve,  but  he  does  not  hesitate  to  place 
Apollos  by  his  side.  Some  of  the  Corinthians 
put  Paul  ahead  of  Apollos,  and  others  put  Apol¬ 
los  ahead  of  Paul.  Paul  does  not  like  it.  Both 
he  and  Apollos  were  fellow  farmhands,  working 
in  God’s  field,  and  what  each  man  accomplished 
was  due  entirely  to  God.  One  of  them  planted, 
and  the  other  did  the  watering,  but  the  planting 
and  the  watering  were  parts  of  one  work,  equally 
indispensable,  and  therefore  why  lift  one  man 
above  the  other?  They  both  alike  were  doing 
God’s  work,  and  both  alike  were  dependent  on 
him.  All  religious  teachers  belong  to  all  believ¬ 
ers,  and  instead  of  a  Christian  shutting  himself 
up  to  one  favorite  teacher,  he  should  make  use  of 
the  gifts  of  them  all.  To  the  men  who  were  al¬ 
ways  depreciating  him,  Paul  showed  the  proud 
side  of  his  nature ;  to  those  who  were  unduly 
exalting  him,  he  revealed  a  heart  which  was  beau¬ 
tifully  humble.  “Who  is  Paul?”  he  inquired  of 
his  over-zealous  partisans.  “Was  Paul  crucified 
for  you?  Were  you  baptized  into  the  name  of 
Paul?  I  am  nothing  but  a  preacher.  I  am  not 


140 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


building  an  institution  of  my  own.  My  mission 
is  not  to  create  a  personal  following,  but  to  rec¬ 
oncile  men  with  God  in  Christ.” 

He  had  a  lofty  consciousness  of  his  integrity, 
and  of  the  nobility  of  his  purpose,  but  he  did  not 
claim  to  be  flawless  in  character  any  more  than  he 
claimed  to  be  infallible  in  opinion.  When  he 
exhorted  men  to  follow  him,  he  was  careful  to 
add — “Just  so  far  as  I  follow  Christ.”  Christ 
was  the  ideal  and  not  Paul.  After  he  had  been  a 
Christian  for  thirty  years,  he  wrote  to  his  favor¬ 
ite  church,  that  his  supreme  ambition  was  to  know 
Christ.  He  knew  him  a  little,  but  not  as  he 
wanted  and  hoped  to  know  him.  He  desired  to 
know  the  power  of  his  resurrection  and  the  fel¬ 
lowship  of  his  sufferings.  “I  have  not  attained 
this  yet,”  he  said,  “nor  am  I  yet  made  complete. 
But  I  am  pressing  on.  No  matter  what  others 
think  of  me,  I  know  I  am  not  perfect.  All  I 
claim  is  that  I  am  always  straining  to  what  lies 
before  me;  I  am  constantly  trying  to  become 
more  and  more  the  kind  of  man  which  God  had 
in  his  mind  when  he  called  me  to  be  the  servant 
of  his  Son.  I  have  not  yet  appropriated  the 
righteousness  which  lies  in  Christ,  but  I  am  try¬ 
ing  to  get  hold  of  it.”  What  Paul  aspired  to  be 
and  was  not,  comforted  him. 

His  deeply  humble  spirit  breathes  through  his 
confessions.  He  was  not  ashamed  to  lay  bare 
his  heart.  There  were  men  in  his  day  who 


HIS  HUMILITY 


141 

claimed  to  be  imperturbable,  priding  themselves 
on  their  ability  to  live  high  above  all  the  emo¬ 
tional  storms  of  the  heart.  Paul  made  no  such 
pretensions.  He  had  “hands,  organs,  dimensions, 
senses,  affections,  passions/’  He  was  fed  with 
the  same  food,  hurt  with  the  same  weapons,  sub¬ 
ject  to  the  same  diseases,  healed  by  the  same 
means,  warmed  and  cooled  by  the  same  winter 
and  summer  as  other  men  were.  When  he  was 
pricked  he  bled,  when  he  was  wronged  he  smarted. 
When  he  failed  he  was  chagrined.  When  he  was 
in  danger  he  quailed.  In  all  this  he  was  alto¬ 
gether  human,  and  although  an  Apostle  with  a 
divine  commission,  he  humbly  told  the  story  of 
his  tumultuous  inner  life,  not  caring  what  effect 
it  might  have  on  his  reputation,  or  how  seriously 
it  might  damage  him  in  the  eyes  of  those  he  was 
attempting  to  bring  to  God.  “Brothers,  pray 
for  me.”  Wonderful  was  the  lowliness  of  his 
great  heart. 

Whenever  he  thought  of  his  sin  in  persecuting 
the  Church,  he  got  down  with  his  mouth  in  the 
dust.  In  those  hours  of  contrition,  no  language 
was  too  strong  to  express  the  self-depreciation 
of  his  penitent  heart.  It  was  when  he  thought 
of  God’s  mercy  to  him,  that  he  fell  to  the  bottom 
of  his  self-esteem.  There  were  hours  in  which 
he  was  ready  to  declare  to  the  whole  world  that 
he  was  not  a  whit  inferior  to  the  very  greatest 
of  the  Apostles,  but  when  the  mood  of  self-con- 


142 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


demnation  was  on  him,  he  felt  he  was  the  very 
least  of  the  Apostles,  and  had  no  right  to  be  called 
an  Apostle  at  all.  This  habit  of  self-humiliation 
grew  on  him,  and  when  he  was  old  he  was  ready 
to  assert  that  he  was  less  than  the  least  of  all 
Christian  believers.  It  was  the  memory  of  God’s 
mercy  to  him  which  drove  him  into  these  fits  of 
self-prostration.  He  was  never  so  conscious  of 
his  unworthiness  as  when  he  thought  of  the 
greatness  of  the  work  which  God  had  called  him 
to  do,  nothing  less  than  preaching  to  the  nations 
of  the  earth  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ, 
and  helping  all  men  everywhere  see  something 
which  had  been  hidden  for  ages,  and  which  would 
now  through  the  very  Church  which  he  had  once 
persecuted,  reveal  to  this  world  and  all  others 
as  never  before,  the  manifold  wisdom  of  God. 
It  was  when  Paul  allowed  his  mind  to  dwell 
on  the  mercy  of  God,  that  his  richest  gain  he 
counted  loss  and  poured  contempt  on  all  his 
pride. 

This  feeling  so  grew  on  him  that  possibly  his 
conscience  at  last  became  morbid.  In  one  of  his 
latest  letters,  he  calls  himself  “the  chief  of  sin¬ 
ners.”  He  was  thinking  again  of  the  old  days 
long  gone  when  with  fanatical  fury  he  dragged 
men  and  women  to  prison  and  death  because  of 
their  belief  in  Jesus.  Paul’s  one  consolation  was 
that  Christ  in  a  colossal  sinner  like  him,  could 
show  the  world  how  merciful  God  is,  and  that 


HIS  HUMILITY  l43 

through  Paul’s  experience  many  would  be 
brought  unto  life  eternal. 

Paul  invariably  refused  to  prostrate  himself 
before  men.  He  met  the  greatest  men  as  his 
brothers  and  equals.  But  before  God  no  man 
ever  got  lower  than  he.  In  the  presence  of  the 
Eternal  he  was  nothing.  Everything  in  his  pos¬ 
session  he  had  received.  Every  gift  which  God 
had  bestowed  upon  him  was  unmerited.  That  is 
why  the  word  “grace”  became  the  favorite  word 
of  Paul’s  vocabulary.  It  was  always  on  his  lips 
and  on  his  pen.  When  he  met  men,  his  saluta¬ 
tion  was:  “The  Grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  you.”  When  he  said  Good-bye,  his  last 
word  was:  “The  Grace  of  the  Lord  Jesus  go 
with  you.”  Grace  is  undeserved  mercy.  The 
sound  of  the  word  was  music  to  him.  It  kept 
alive  in  his  heart  the  feeling  of  humble  love. 

His  humility  did  not  exhaust  itself  in  lowly 
feelings,  but  worked  itself  out  into  conduct.  Our 
Lord  was  always  praising  humility.  He  declared 
that  he  himself  was  humble,  and  then  proved  it 
by  making  himself  of  no  reputation,  and  becom¬ 
ing  the  servant  of  all.  On  the  last  night  of  his 
life,  he  took  a  basin  and  towel,  and  having  used 
them,  he  said,  “I  have  given  you  an  example.” 
Paul  was  always  using  the  basin  and  towel.  He 
did  the  things  which  needed  to  be  done.  He  came 
down  to  where  men  were,  no  matter  how  far  he 
had  to  go.  Highly  educated,  he  did  his  work 


144 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


among  people  who  never  went  to  school.  His 
converts  were  with  few  exceptions  from  the  un¬ 
cultivated  classes,  peasants,  small  shopkeepers, 
slaves.  Even  in  Corinth  the  Church  was  made 
up  for  the  most  part  of  humble  folk,  men  and 
women  who  cut  no  figure  in  the  social  life  of  the 
town.  “Look  at  your  own  ranks,  my  brothers,” 
he  said,  “and  see  what  kind  of  people  you  are. 
Not  many  of  you  are  educated,  not  many  of  you 
are  men  of  influence,  not  many  of  you  are  from 
noble  families.  It  looks  as  though  God  had 
chosen  the  people  without  learning  and  influence 
and  social  rank,  to  bring  to  an  end  the  wrong¬ 
doing  and  woes  of  the  world.  There  will  be  no 
chance  then  for  anybody  to  boast  that  the  prog¬ 
ress  of  the  Church  is  due  to  money  or  social 
prestige,  for  every  one  can  see  clearly  when  they 
look  at  the  members  of  the  Church  that  our  move¬ 
ment  must  get  its  power  from  God.” 

It  was  not  the  insignificant  people  of  his  own 
race  to  whom  Paul  devoted  his  life,  but  to  the 
same  class  in  foreign  lands.  It  was  the  hewers 
of  wood,  and  the  drawers  of  water,  the  people 
near  the  bottom  and  not  at  the  top,  who  were 
first  attracted  to  the  religion  of  Jesus.  The  men 
of  culture  and  property,  the  people  of  light  and 
leading  for  the  most  part  passed  the  new  relig¬ 
ion  by.  A  man  of  culture  and  learning  and  high 
social  rank  does  not  readily  cast  in  his  lot  with 
ignorant  foreigners.  But  it  was  with  common- 


HIS  HUMILITY 


145 


place  foreigners  that  Paul  spent  most  of  his  life. 
These  foreigners  needed  a  service  which  he  was 
able  to  render,  so  he  took  the  basin  and  towel. 
No  wonder  many  could  not  guess  the  motive 
which  would  drive  a  sensible  man  into  such  a 
course.  Why  should  a  man  of  his  education 
waste  his  time  in  trying  to  reconcile  runaway 
slaves  with  their  masters?  Why  should  a  man 
of  his  splendid  ability  spend  his  days  working 
with  his  needle  in  a  dingy  shop  with  two  social 
nobodies — Prisca  and  Aquila?  Why  should  a 
man  fit  to  stand  at  the  head  of  a  School  of  The¬ 
ology  or  Philosophy  in  Tarsus  or  Jerusalem,  frit¬ 
ter  away  his  strength  in  trying  to  show  a  lot  of 
crotchety  people  who  were  incapable  of  appre¬ 
ciating  his  character  or  understanding  his  teach¬ 
ing,  how  to  live  decent  lives?  The  character  of 
some  of  his  converts  was  unsavory,  and  the 
seamy  side  of  church  life  must  have  made  him 
often  sick.  We  can  infer  how  morally  undevel¬ 
oped  many  of  his  Church  members  were,  from 
the  exhortations  contained  in  his  letters.  It  is  a 
disagreeable  and  thankless  work,  this  work  of 
trying  to  lift  up  common  humanity  to  a  higher 
plane  of  living,  unless  a  man  has  in  him  a  spirit 
which  is  different  from  that  which  dominates 
the  life  of  the  average  man.  To  use  the  basin 
and  towel  cuts  across  the  grain  of  our  nature. 
Men  love  to  be  ministered  unto  rather  than  to 
minister.  They  have  slight  inclination  to  give  up 


146 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


their  lives  a  ransom  for  many.  Paul  was  hum¬ 
ble  in  the  sense  in  which  Jesus  was  humble.  He 
did  not  stand  on  his  dignity  when  a  useful  bit 
of  work  was  to  be  done.  He  was  not  afraid  of 
hurting  his  reputation  by  mingling  with  people 
of  a  lower  social  stratum.  He  could  work  with 
his  hands  and  not  feel  degraded.  He  was  not 
ashamed  to  do  anything  no  matter  how  menial, 
which  a  right-minded  man  might  honorably  do. 
He  was  gentle  and  lowly  in  heart,  and  there¬ 
fore  he  did  not  dislike  the  name  servant.  He 
was  fond  of  it,  and  always  wrote  it  after  his 
name.  That  was  the  title  which  he  loved  the 
best.  Others  have  written  “Saint  Paul,”  but  he 
always  wrote  “Servant  Paul.”  And  the  Greek 
word  he  chose  was  not  the  name  for  a  domestic 
servant  in  a  twentieth  century  home,  but  the 
name  of  a  bond  servant  or  slave  under  a  master 
who  owned  him,  and  whom  he  was  legally  bound 
to  obey.  He  counted  it  an  honor  to  obey  one 
who  was  worthy  of  receiving  obedience.  He 
found  nothing  unmanly  in  the  act  of  submitting. 
He  was  glad  to  put  himself  in  subjection  to  a 
personality  higher  than  his  own.  He  had  the  hu¬ 
mility  of  a  little  child,  always  teachable  and  eager 
to  learn.  He  forgot  the  things  which  were  be¬ 
hind  him  and  pressed  on.  He  was  a  proud  man, 
and  could  easily  have  become  a  stubborn  and  ar¬ 
rogant  man,  but  under  the  influence  of  Jesus,  he 
learned  to  bend  the  knee. 


XI 

HIS  VEHEMENCE 


XI 


HIS  VEHEMENCE 

Festus  thought  Paul  was  crazy,  probably  be¬ 
cause  Paul  got  excited.  As  the  prisoner  spoke 
on  and  on,  his  eyes  flashed  and  his  voice  became 
surcharged  with  feeling.  There  was  a  fire  in  him 
which  a  cold-blooded  man  like  Festus  could  not 
understand.  To  tepid-blooded  people,  enthusi¬ 
asts  are  always  an  enigma.  Paul  was  a  man  who 
could  burn  with  fervent  heat.  He  was  a  volcano 
of  a  man  and  his  words  sometimes  flowed  like 
molten  lava.  He  could  write  letters  whose  para¬ 
graphs  blazed  like  leaping  tongues  of  flame. 
There  are  sentences  from  his  lips  which  still  glow 
like  burning  coals,  uncooled  by  the  snows  of  nine¬ 
teen  hundred  winters.  By  nature  he  was  im¬ 
pulsive,  precipitate,  vehement.  It  was  his  way  to 
plunge  into  things  headlong.  He  could  not  do 
anything  by  halves.  When  he  started  on  a  course 
which  he  believed  to  be  right,  he  was  fiery,  im¬ 
placable  and  irresistible. 

We  have  it  from  his  own  lips,  that  before  he 
became  a  Christian,  he  was  furious  in  his  oppo- 


149 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


150 

sition  to  Jesus.  He  so  hated  the  name  that  he 
compelled  Christians  to  blaspheme  it.  He  de¬ 
tested  the  Church  and  hounded  its  members,  go¬ 
ing  into  their  homes  and  dragging  them  to  prison. 
When  the  time  came  for  trial,  he  had  them 
whipped  and  voted  for  their  death.  He  made  no 
distinction  between  men  and  women ;  all  alike 
were  swept  without  mercy  to  their  doom.  He 
was  so  mad  against  the  new  religion,  that  he  car¬ 
ried  his  persecution  even  to  foreign  cities.  His 
friend  Luke  aptly  described  him  as  “breathing 
threatening  and  slaughter.” 

When  a  man  like  that  becomes  a  Christian,  his 
native  fire  still  remains  in  him.  What  Paul  was 
at  the  beginning  in  temperament  and  constitution, 
he  was  to  the  end.  He  was  always  a  man  of  fire. 
We  cannot  do  him  justice  unless  we  take  that  into 
account.  His  writings  are  misleading,  unless  we 
read  them  through  his  temperament.  We  cannot 
interpret  his  theology,  unless  we  first  become  ac¬ 
quainted  with  his  style.  The  style  is  always  of 
the  man,  and  Paul’s  style  is  a  medium  of  revela¬ 
tion  of  his  manhood.  Too  often  it  has  been 
studied  merely  as  a  literary  phenomenon.  Scholars 
have  pored  over  it,  looking  for  Hebraisms,  Hel¬ 
lenisms,  and  Syriacisms,  and  other  things  which 
scholars  love.  They  have  catalogued  and  labeled 
his  figures  of  speech,  and  have  searched  day  and 
night  for  linguistic  peculiarities  and  literary  char¬ 
acteristics.  They  have  even  counted  his  words, 


HIS  VEHEMENCE 


I51' 

and  when  a  new  word  has  emerged,  they  have 
drawn  inferences  from  it,  and  on  the  inferences 
they  have  sometimes  built  a  theory,  and  from  the 
theory  they  have  deduced  a  doctrine;  and  thus 
has  the  world  been  deluged  with  books  on  Paul 
which  no  one  cares  to  read.  The  professional 
word  counters  are  not  the  men  who  can  under¬ 
stand  Paul.  Nor  are  they  the  men  whose  word 
can  be  taken  as  final  on  questions  of  authentic¬ 
ity.  When  a  letter  is  rejected  because  it  contains 
a  few  new  words,  Biblical  scholarship  shows  it¬ 
self  at  its  worst.  Many  men  are  acquainted  with 
the  Greek  lexicon  who  are  not  acquainted  with 
Paul,  and  no  one  is  competent  to  pass  judgment 
on  the  genuineness  of  any  of  the  letters  attributed 
to  him,  unless  he  is  intimately  acquainted  with 
the  man.  Experts  have  ransacked  the  letters  for 
excellences  and  defects,  for  elegances  and  vul¬ 
garisms,  for  beauties  and  harshnesses,  for  evi¬ 
dence  of  his  Greek  culture,  and  for  proof  of  his 
proficiency  in  the  use  of  the  Greek  language,  and 
have  then  fallen  to  wrangling  over  the  things 
which  they  thought  they  had  found.  The  con¬ 
troversy  over  Paul’s  style  is  interminable,  and  the 
disheartening  fact  is  that  the  Greek  specialists 
have  never  been  able  to  agree.  To  the  present 
hour,  it  is  an  open  question  among  those  best 
qualified  to  pass  judgment,  whether  Paul’s  style 
is  literary  or  not.  One  man  says  he  writes  like 
Thucydides,  while  another  declares  that  he  vio- 


152 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


lates  audaciously  not  only  the  genius  of  the 
Greek  language,  but  the  logic  of  human  speech. 

But  the  thing  of  importance  to  mankind  about 
his  style,  is  not  its  literary  qualities,  but  its  power 
to  carry  us  into  the  heart  of  the  writer.  In  his 
style,  we  feel  the  heartbeat  of  the  man.  His 
style  is  rapid,  it  sweeps  along  like  a  prairie  fire, 
like  a  swollen  mountain  torrent.  It  has  been  de¬ 
scribed  as  “a  rapid  conversation  taken  down  by 
a  stenographer,  and  reproduced  without  correc¬ 
tions.”  It  is  fortunate  that  no  corrections  were 
made.  In  his  unstudied  and  spontaneous  use  of 
language,  we  get  the  man  Paul  as  he  was. 

Because  he  was  impetuous  by  nature,  he  was 
vehement  in  his  use  of  words.  He  was  a  man  of 
action,  and  hence  had  little  liking  for  the  refine¬ 
ments  and  embellishments  of  the  rhetorical 
schools.  He  was  a  practical  worker  in  the  every¬ 
day  world,  and  not  a  monk  in  a  cell  or  an  anchor¬ 
ite  in  a  cave.  He  was  no  pillar  saint.  He  would 
have  jumped  off  the  pillar  before  the  end  of  the 
first  week.  He  was  always  doing  things — bring¬ 
ing  things  to  pass.  He  was  always  going  some¬ 
where.  He  did  not  know  how  to  fold  his  legs. 
He  longed  to  see  Rome — he  set  his  heart  on  go¬ 
ing  to  Spain,  the  end  of  the  world. 

He  was  quick  in  his  every  movement,  and  the 
spirit  of  headlong  haste  is  in  his  style.  He  had 
no  time  to  be  careful  even  of  grammar.  When 
grammar  got  in  his  way,  he  smashed  it.  He 


HIS  VEHEMENCE 


153 


sometimes  forgot  what  he  was  going  to  say.  He 
did  not  always  complete  his  sentences.  He  had 
not  time.  He  never  dreamed  he  was  infallible. 
Had  he  known  it,  he  would  have  thought  twice 
before  writing  some  of  the  things  he  wrote.  He 
did  not  know  he  was  writing  for  the  ages.  Had 
he  known  this,  he  would  have  finished  some  of 
the  sentences  which  he  left  incomplete.  He  had 
no  ambition  to  be  consistent.  His  mind  was  fixed 
on  more  important  things.  He  had  no  time  to 
build  a  philosophical  system.  That  is  a  labor¬ 
ious  undertaking,  and  requires  a  deal  of  leisure. 
A  man  who  thought  that  men  had  hardly  time  to 
marry,  would  hardly  be  likely  to  take  time  for 
building  up  a  system  of  theology.  He  had  sim¬ 
ply  a  few  ideas  which  burned  in  his  blood  like 
fire,  and  it  was  his  business  to  drive  these  ideas 
home,  and  to  do  it  at  once.  And  so  his  style  is 
sometimes  harsh  and  jagged.  It  breaks  and  jerks 
because  the  current  of  his  feeling  is  so  full  and 
strong.  His  words  come  out  of  him  as  water 
comes  sputtering  and  gurgling  out  of  a  jug  that  is 
full.  The  King’s  servant  must  make  haste,  and 
so  he  sweeps  gloriously  on,  committing  various 
grammatical  and  rhetorical  blunders,  of  which 
the  scholars  will  write  learnedly  after  he  is  dead. 

A  man  like  this  cannot  be  understood  by  men 
who  sit  in  their  study,  and  in  cold  blood  and  at 
leisure  dissect  his  sentences,  squeezing  divine 
doctrines  out  of  every  syllable,  and  drawing  wi- 


154 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


dening  conclusions  from  phrases  into  which 
meanings  are  crowded  which  they  never  were 
intended  to  hold.  The  traditional  conception  of 
inspiration  must  be  reconstructed.  No  idea  of 
New  Testament  inspiration  is  true  to  facts  which 
does  not  leave  room  for  imperfections  and  lapses, 
for  one-sided  statements  and  over-emphasized  as¬ 
pects  of  truth,  for  contradictions  and  inconsis¬ 
tencies,  for  exaggerations  and  mixed  metaphors, 
and  for  expressions  which  the  writer  later  on  had 
cause  to  regret.  The  image  of  the  inspired  and 
inerrant  Apostle,  which  still  hangs  in  many'  a 
mind,  is  a  creation  of  the  pious  and  uninstructed 
imagination.  We  must  learn  to  read  Paul’s  let¬ 
ters  through  his  character.  We  cannot  deal  with 
his  theology  fairly  until  we  first  understand  the 
man.  When  we  once  know  him,  we  know  better 
what  weight  to  give  to  his  words.  We  see  he  was 
incapable  of  building  a  system,  and  become  con¬ 
vinced  that  much  of  the  theology  which  is  based 
on  his  letters  must  be  cast  on  the  scrap  heap. 
We  must  judge  him  as  we  judge  our  acquaint¬ 
ances  and  friends.  We  always  interpret  what 
they  say  through  what  we  know  of  their  own 
selves.  When  they  talk  to  us,  we  make  additions 
and  subtractions,  qualifications  and  modifications, 
listening  not  only  to  what  they  say,  but  to  what 
they  are.  We  say  of  one,  “His  bark  is  worse  than 
his  bite.”  Of  another,  “He  does  not  mean  quite 
all  he  says.”  Of  another,  “You  must  make  al- 


HIS  VEHEMENCE 


155 


lowances  for  that  remark,  you  do  not  know  him 
as  well  as  I  do.”  Just  so  we  must  interpret  Paul’s 
words  in  the  light  of  what  we  know  of  his  per¬ 
sonality.  He  was  a  vehement  and  impetuous  man. 
No  man  is  to  be  put  down  a  bigot  because  he  once 
called  a  man  “accursed.”  It  is  not  fair  to  call 
him  narrow,  because  at  one  point  he  was  not  lib¬ 
eral.  It  is  unjust  to  call  him  a  fatalist,  because  he 
once  used  a  figure  which  annihilates  freedom. 
Why  should  we  call  him  a  fool  because  he  once 
used  an  argument  which  was  foolish  ?  Not  a  little 
of  the  theology  which  has  been  built  upon  Paul¬ 
ine  foundations  would  never  have  been  con¬ 
structed  had  the  builders  only  realized  that  Paul 
was  an  impulsive  and  precipitate  man,  writing 
in  a  hurry  to  people  who  needed  help  at  once. 
We  must  interpret  his  teaching  through  our  ac¬ 
quaintance  with  the  man. 

And  so  Paul  was  constantly  getting  himself 
into  trouble,  because  of  his  driving  ahead  without 
taking  the  pains  to  make  his  meaning  clear.  He 
wrote  a  letter  to  the  Thessalonians  which  stirred 
up  so  much  commotion,  that  he  had  to  write  a  sec¬ 
ond  letter  to  explain  what  he  meant.  He  wrote 
a  letter  to  the  Corinthians  which  contained  state¬ 
ments  so  extreme,  that  it  was  necessary  to  write 
another  letter  to  tone  these  statements  down.  He 
went  ahead  and  circumcised  Timothy,  without 
considering  the  efFect  it  might  have  on  his  work 
in  other  provinces,  and  so  he  had  to  write  to  the 


156  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

Galatians  to  correct  the  impression  which  his  ac¬ 
tion  had  produced. 

His  idea  of  liberty  was  a  true  one,  but  he  did 
not  state  it  with  sufficient  precision,  and  the  result 
was  that  it  was  in  many  circles  misunderstood  and 
misapplied,  thus  giving  his  enemies  a  better  chance 
to  convince  the  people  that  he  was  a  reckless  and 
unsafe  leader.  His  teaching  concerning  justifi¬ 
cation  by  faith  was  sound,  but  he  did  not  safe¬ 
guard  it  against  false  inferences,  with  the  result 
that  it  often  worked  mischief  in  his  own  lifetime, 
and  has  continued  to  work  mischief  to  the  present 
day.  Had  he  been  less  vehement,  he  would  have 
been  more  careful  to  avoid  sweeping  and  unquali¬ 
fied  statements.  His  feeling  often  carried  him 
away,  and  he  made  assertions  which  could  not  be 
successfully  defended.  While  his  soul  was  kin¬ 
dled  to  fever  heat,  he  wrote  to  the  Galatians : 
“I,  Paul,  say  unto  you  that  if  ye  receive  circum¬ 
cision,  Christ  will  profit  you  nothing.  Yea,  I 
testify  again  to  every  man  that  receiveth  circum¬ 
cision,  that  he  is  a  debtor  to  do  the  whole  law.” 
And  yet  at  another  time,  he  did  not  hesitate  to 
admit  that  circumcision  is  nothing  and  that  un¬ 
circumcision  is  nothing.  A  man  can  be  a  Chris¬ 
tian  whether  he  has  been  circumcised  or  not.  He 
believed  it  would  be  a  good  thing  to  have  one  of 
his  own  chief  workers  circumcised. 

His  teaching  concerning  the  sexes  was  certain 
to  give  rise  to  misunderstanding.  He  was  always 


HIS  VEHEMENCE 


15  7 


saying  with  great  boldness  that  in  Christ  there  is 
neither  male  nor  female;  in  other  words,  sex  dis¬ 
tinctions  in  the  realm  of  religion  are  no  longer 
controlling.  It  was  natural  that  the  women  who 
listened  to  such  teaching  should  begin  to  ask  con¬ 
cerning  their  rights.  They  could  not  see  why 
they  should  not  speak  in  church  meetings  as  well 
as  the  men,  nor  could  they  understand  why  if 
men  went  bareheaded,  women  should  continue  to 
keep  their  heads  covered.  Paul  met  them  with 
his  usual  impetuosity.  He  was  horrified  that  they 
should  aspire  after  such  liberties.  It  was  so  clear 
to  him  that  such  conduct  on  the  part  of  the 
women  would  be  imprudent  and  demoralizing, 
that  he  fell  into  speech  which  is  so  extreme  that 
it  is  ridiculous.  He  says,  that  if  a  woman  goes 
without  a  veil  in  the  church  meeting,  she  might 
just  as  well  be  shaven.  That  meant  in  Corinth 
that  she  might  as  well  take  her  place  openly  with 
the  women  who  had  lost  their  reputation.  He 
went  on  to  say  that  if  a  woman  was  not  willing 
to  wear  a  veil,  she  ought  to  cut  off  her  hair ;  in 
other  words,  she  ought  to  enroll  herself  among 
the  concubines  of  the  city.  To  the  modern  mind, 
talk  like  this  is  silly.  The  Apostle  was  right  in 
the  position  he  took,  but  in  order  to  defend  it,  he 
used  arguments  which  were  strained  and  words 
which  were  foolish.  His  nature  was  such,  that 
when  once  embarked  on  a  course  he  had  to  go  all 
the  way. 


158 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


When  an  idea  got  a  grip  on  him,  it  sometimes 
ran  away  with  him.  He  saw  it  and  it  alone.  He 
lost  sight  of  all  other  truths  to  which  his  first 
truth  was  related,  and  by  which  it  was  modified 
and  held  in  check.  He  indulged  in  exaggerations, 
and  made  statements  only  partially  true,  not  be¬ 
cause  he  did  not  value  the  truth,  but  because  of 
the  impulsiveness  of  his  eager,  fervent  soul.  We 
must  lay  his  various  statements  on  any  subject 
side  by  side,  in  order  to  get  at  the  whole  truth 
which  he  intended  to  teach.  He  was  not  a  one¬ 
sided  man,  but  he  said  many  one-sided  things,  and 
the  reason  he  said  them  was  that  he  was  so  swept 
away  by  the  intensity  of  his  nature  that  he  could 
see  only  one  side  of  a  truth  at  a  time.  Like  the 
rest  of  us,  he  was  sometimes  heedless  and  made 
mistakes,  and  had  to  correct  his  errors,  and  com¬ 
plete  his  deficiencies,  and  pay  for  his  blunders. 
Paul  was  as  fiery  as  Peter  and  fully  as  impulsive, 
but  their  vehemence  did  not  unfit  them  to  be 
Apostles.  Jesus  was  fond  of  ardent  and  glowing 
men.  He  could  put  up  with  defects  and  blunders 
in  men  who  had  zeal.  He  knew  that  only  men 
of  fire  can  conquer  the  world.  When  John  heard 
him  speaking  to  the  Church  in  Laodicea,  he  heard 
him  say — “Because  you  are  lukewarm,  I  will 
spew  you  out  of  my  mouth.’’  Jesus  himself  was 
vehement,  but  without  sin. 


XII 


HIS  PATIENCE 


XII 


PATIENCE 

It  is  not  easy  for  an  impetuous  man  to  be  pa¬ 
tient.  He  is  almost  sure  to  chafe  under  delay  or 
restraint,  and  to  behave  unseemly.  People  of 
warm  impulses  are  prone  to  be  unsteady.  Eager 
and  incandescent  natures  are  in  many  cases  easily 
cooled.  Those  who  mount  up  with  wings  like 
eagles  often  come  down  soon.  Those  who  run 
for  a  while  like  race  horses  become  exhausted 
and  drop  out  of  the  race.  Impatience  is  one  of 
the  most  common  and  demoralizing  of  all  human 
vices.  It  works  havoc  with  the  higher  life  of 
mankind.  Every  parish  shows  evidence  of  its 
ravages.  Christian  men  start  to  build  towers,  but 
do  not  finish  them.  They  put  their  hand  to  the 
plow,  and  look  back  as  soon  as  the  plowing  be¬ 
comes  hard.  They  launch  enterprises  which  they 
forsake  and  leave  for  others  to  carry  on.  Most 
men  are  like  children.  When  they  want  a  thing, 
they  want  itr  at  once.  They  are  not  willing  to 
wait.  They  demand  short  cuts  to  goals  which 
can  be  attained  only  by  tedious  and  winding  ap- 

161 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


1 6  2 

proaches.  It  is  because  of  our  vehemence  that 
we  find  it  hard  to  persevere  and  endure. 

Paul  was  a  paragon  of  patience,  and  we  appre¬ 
ciate  his  patience  in  proportion  as  we  understand 
his  fiery  and  precipitate  nature.  He  could  run, 
but  he  could  also  walk.  He  could  let  himself  out, 
but  he  could  also  hold  himself  in.  He  was  eager 
to  get  on,  but  he  knew  how  to  wait. 

After  his  conversion,  he  did  not  run  to  the  ful¬ 
filment  of  his  mission.  He  was  no  longer  young, 
and  the  time  was  short,  and  his  work  was  urgent, 
but  he  did  not  plunge  headlong  into  evangelistic 
activity.  He  started  at  once  for  Arabia.  He 
wanted  to  be  alone.  He  desired  time  to  think. 
He  had  made  a  new  discovery,  but  he  did  not 
know  yet  what  all  it  meant.  He  had  a  fresh 
conviction,  but  he  was  not  ready  to  proclaim  it 
to  the  world.  His  old  creed  had  crumbled,  a  new 
creed  was  taking  shape,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
go  into  solitude  in  order  to  give  his  creed  a  form 
which  could  be  presented  to  the  world.  Paul  was 
a  man  of  intellect,  and  to  him  as  to  all  other  men 
who  use  their  minds  on  high  themes,  religion 
presented  many  perplexing  problems.  There  were 
thronging  questions,  and  he  must,  if  possible, 
find  answers  to  them.  There  were  new  ideas,  and 
he  must  think  them  through.  He  did  not  know 
how  far  they  reached,  or  what  all  they  might  in¬ 
volve.  He  had  a  vision,  but  that  vision  would  be 
worthless  until  he  worked  it  out  into  intellectual 


HIS  PATIENCE 


163 

forms  which  could  be  presented  to  keen  and 
thoughtful  men.  His  experience  near  the  Dam¬ 
ascus  gate  had  caused  a  vast  upheaval  in  every 
department  of  his  life,  and  he  was  not  ready  to 
take  a  step  forward  until  he  had  pondered  it,  and 
found  out  its  meaning.  A  great  light  had  flashed 
on  him  and  his  mental  eyes  were  so  blinded  that 
he  could  not  at  once  get  his  bearings.  A  new  ex¬ 
perience  had  come  to  him  and  he  must  compre¬ 
hend  it,  and  build  it  into  the  structure  of  his 
thinking  about  the  universe  and  God.  He  did  not 
come  out  of  the  house  of  Ananias  with  the  letter 
to  the  Romans  in  his  mind.  He  was  all  confused 
and  unstrung.  He  plunged  into  the  solitudes  of 
Arabia.  What  he  did  there,  we  do  not  know. 
He  never  told  even  Luke.  Luke  passes  over  the 
sojourn  in  Arabia  as  though  he  had  never  heard 
of  it.  How  long  Paul  stayed  in  Arabia  we  can¬ 
not  tell;  probably  a  year,  possibly  two  years,  we 
only  know  that  at  the  end  of  three  years,  having 
done  some  preaching  in  Damascus,  he  finally  de¬ 
cided  to  go  to  Jerusalem.  He  wanted  to  see 
Peter,  and  he  craved  an  interview  with  James. 
Peter  could  tell  him  about  the  public  life  of  Jesus, 
and  James  could  tell  him  about  Jesus’  life  in  the 
Nazareth  home.  Paul  wanted  to  know  every¬ 
thing  about  Jesus  that  could  be  known.  And  then 
suddenly  he  drops  out  of  sight  again,  this  time 
for  ten  years.  Luke  does  not  tell  us  where  he 
went  or  what  he  did.  Paul  tells  us  nothing  be- 


164 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


yond  the  fact  that  he  went  into  the  regions  of 
Syria  and  Cilicia.  Through  all  those  years,  the 
Christians  of  Judea  did  not  know  him  by  face. 
They  knew  from  hearsay  that  the  notorious  per¬ 
secutor  of  the  Church  had  changed  his  mind,  and 
was  preaching  the  faith  he  once  despised.  These 
thirteen  silent  and  obscure  years  remind  us  of 
the  eighteen  silent  years  of  Jesus.  Neither  man 
burst  upon  the  world  without  long  years  of  dis¬ 
cipline  and  preparation.  In  those  thirteen  years, 
Paul  became  the  man  whom  we  meet  in  his  let¬ 
ters.  His  earliest  letter  now  in  our  possession, 
is  his  first  letter  to  the  Thessalonians,  and  that 
letter  was  written  after  he  was  fifty  years  of  age. 
It  is  the  production  of  a  mature  and  disciplined 
mind.  It  was  now  eighteen  years  after  his  con¬ 
version  and  by  long  years  of  patient  brooding 
and  faithful  ministering,  his  ideas  have  become 
clarified  and  his  convictions  have  become  solid  as 
adamant.  One  may  become  a  Christian  baby  in 
an  hour,  but  not  a  Christian  man.  In  those  eight¬ 
een  years,  Paul  passed  from  babyhood  to  man¬ 
hood.  No  man  becomes  wise  or  strong  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye.  He  may  catch  a  new  view 
of  truth  in  a  second,  but  character  is  built  by  the 
plodding  toil  of  patient  years.  We  cannot  ac¬ 
count  for  the  calm  endurance  of  the  long-suffer¬ 
ing  hero  who  looks  out  on  us  from  the  letters, 
unless  we  remember  the  unrecorded  years  of  quiet 
growth,  during  which  the  mists  hide  him  from 


HIS  PATIENCE 


165 

our  eyes,  concealing  the  tedious  and  long-drawn 
processes  by  which  the  sinews  of  his  soul  were 
made  strong.  Patience  is  not  a  flower  dropped 
magically  from  heaven,  but  a  growth,  or  as 
Paul  expresses  it,  a  part  of  the  spiritual  har¬ 
vest. 

A  man  shows  his  patience  by  the  way  he  bears 
disappointment.  Paul  had  an  abiding  ambition  to 
see  the  capital  of  the  world.  For  years  he  had 
longed  for  the  opportunity  to  preach  in  Rome. 
Something  or  other  always  stood  in  the  way.  At 
the  end  of  many  years,  the  coveted  chance  ar¬ 
rived  ;  but  the  poor  man  entered  the  city  in  chains. 
However  he  did  not  repine.  He  made  the  best 
of  his  misfortune,  and  quietly  took  up  his  work. 
From  one  of  his  letters  we  know  that  instead  of 
chafing  and  complaining  because  of  the  chain,  he 
rejoiced  in  it  as  a  blessing  in  disguise. 

He  was  disappointed  in  not  getting  release 
from  a  physical  affliction  which  hampered  him  in 
his  work.  He  asked  God  to  deliver  him,  and  God 
refused  to  do  it.  He  waited  for  months,  and 
God  remained  obdurate.  And  then  Paul  begged 
him  again,  and  God  did  not  seem  to  hear.  Paul 
waited  a  long  time  for  an  answer,  but  no  answer 
came.  Finally  Paul  pleaded  with  him  once  more, 
but  he  pleaded  in  vain.  In  spite  of  his  prayers, 
his  old  affliction  remained.  But  Paul  did  not 
sputter  or  give  up  his  faith.  He  went  on  with 
his  labors,  and  found  out  to  his  delight  that  not- 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


1 66 

withstanding  his  disability,  he  could  still  do  suc¬ 
cessful  work. 

The  supreme  disappointment  of  Paul’s  life 
was  Jesus’  failure  to  come  in  Paul’s  lifetime. 
This  was  the  fondest  of  his  hopes,  the  sweetest 
of  his  dreams.  It  became  more  than  a  hope — it 
grew  into  a  conviction.  He  was  sure  Jesus  was 
coming,  and  that  he  was  coming  soon.  He  en¬ 
couraged  others  by  inspiring  them  with  the  same 
expectation.  Paul  was  always  waiting  for  the 
glorious  hour  of  Jesus’  appearing.  But  Jesus 
did  not  come.  Year  after  year  passed,  and  the 
world  went  on  in  its  sinnings  and  miseries,  with 
no  relief  from  the  expected  Savior.  But  Paul  did 
not  fume  or  grow  despondent.  He  bore  his  dis¬ 
appointment  without  complaint.  He  came  grad¬ 
ually  to  see  that  Jesus  was  not  coming  before  he 
died.  But  this  did  not  weaken  his  faith.  He 
was  glad  to  have  God  pursue  his  own  course. 
When  he  was  old,  he  wrote  to  some  of  his  friends 
that  he  hardly  knew  whether  he  would  rather  go 
into  the  other  world  just  then,  or  stay  here.  He 
was  sure  that  death  would  be  better  for  him,  but 
as  it  would  apparently  be  better  for  his  friends  to 
have  him  remain  here,  he  was  inclined  to  think 
that  God  would  allow  him  to  .stay.  No  disap¬ 
pointment  however  grievous  could  cause  him  to 
lose  his  temper  or  rebel.  His  attitude  is  expressed 
in  a  sentence  he  once  wrote  to  the  Romans  : 
“Who  ever  hopes  for  what  he  sees  already?  But 


HIS  PATIENCE  167 

if  we  hope  for  something  that  we  do  not  see,  we 
wait  for  it  patiently.” 

A  man’s  patience  comes  out  in  his  methods  of 
work.  When  Paul  made  converts  in  a  city,  he 
did  not  at  once  leave  the  place  forever.  He  went 
back  to  it.  He  walked  back  to  it,  even  though 
it  were  a  hundred  miles.  How  patiently  he  trod 
those  long  and  wearisome  distances  which 
stretched  from  one  city  to  another.  Why  did  he 
go  back?  Because  his  work  was  not  yet  com¬ 
pleted.  The  work  of  a  herald  is  of  slight  value 
unless  it  is  supplemented  by  the  long  continued 
labor  of  other  men.  There  must  be  a  work  of 
teaching  and  administration  and  of  shepherding, 
if  men  are  to  be  saved.  Salvation  does  not  come 
by  the  simple  hearing  of  a  sermon.  A  man  may 
start  on  the  way  of  moral  recovery  by  listening 
to  a  message  which  grips  his  heart,  but  every¬ 
thing  depends  on  his  going  on.  Evangelists  have 
too  often  forgotten  this.  They  have  exulted  in 
blowing  the  trumpet  calling  men  to  battle,  and 
have  overlooked  the  importance  of  the  patient 
drudgery  of  drilling  men  to  meet  the  enemy  on 
the  field.  Paul’s  advance  from  Antioch  in  Pisi- 
dia  to  Derbe  was  glorious,  but  it  was  not  a  whit 
more  glorious  than  his  journey  from  Derbe  back 
to  Antioch.  On  going  East,  Paul  had  made  con¬ 
verts,  but  on  his  way  West  he  “strengthened  the 
souls  of  the  disciples,  encouraging  them  to  hold 
by  the  faith,  and  telling  them  that  men  have  to 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


1 68 

get  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  through  many  a 
trouble.”  It  takes  courage  to  make  converts,  but 
it  takes  both  courage  and  patience  to  organize 
the  converts  into  churches  with  officers  to  admin¬ 
ister  the  affairs  of  the  congregation  and  to  train 
the  beginning  believers  in  the  principles  of  Chris¬ 
tian  living. 

It  is  this  work  of  teaching  and  shepherding' 
and  governing  which  most  tries  Christian  minis¬ 
ters’  souls.  When  Paul  made  a  list  of  all  of  his 
hardships  he  put  at  the  end,  “the  care  of  all  the 
churches.”  The  care  of  one  church  is  a  full  man’s 
work  even  in  a  Christian  country  nineteen  hun¬ 
dred  years  after  Paul’s  day.  What  must  the  care 
of  a  score  of  churches  have  been  when  Chris¬ 
tianity  was  young  and  the  converts  did  not  have 
the  benefit  of  sixty  generations  of  spiritual  expe¬ 
rience  and  growth !  It  is  our  tendency  to  idealize 
the  Apostolic  Church,  but  Paul  opens  our  eyes 
to  the  Church  as  it  was.  The  Church  in  Corinth 
was  probably  no  worse  than  the  others,  and  Paul 
says  that  it  had  in  it  factions  and  gossip  and  van¬ 
ity,  boorishness  and  superstition  and  licentious¬ 
ness,  grave  disorders  in  public  worship,  and  even 
drunkenness  at  the  Lord’s  supper.  Church  mem¬ 
bers  were  captious  and  bumptious  and  stupid. 
Gentile  converts  slipped  back  into  the  vile  habits 
of  the  pagan  world.  “Do  not  brag,  do  not  lie,  do 
not  steal,  do  not  get  drunk,  do  not  indulge  in 
filthy  talk,  do  not  give  way  to  your  lusts,”  this  is 


HIS  PATIENCE 


169 


the  kind  of  instruction  which  many  of  his  con¬ 
verts  needed.  But  he  was  as  patient  with  them  as 
a  father,  a  mother,  a  nurse.  He  looked  upon 
them  sometimes  as  children,  and  sometimes  as 
his  brothers  and  sisters,  and  bore  with  them  in 
their  manifold  stumblings  and  fallings.  No  won¬ 
der  one  of  his  favorite  words  was  “Long-suffer¬ 
ing.”  He  knew  from  his  own  experience,  that 
there  is  a  love  which  can  suffer  long  and  still  be 
kind. 

Nothing  is  harder  for  a  strong  man  to  bear 
than  defeat.  Paul  was  always  failing,  but  he  al¬ 
ways  got  up  and  tried  again.  They  drove  him 
out  of  Damascus,  out  of  Jerusalem,  out  of  An¬ 
tioch  in  Pisidia,  out  of  Iconium,  out  of  Lystra, 
out  of  Philippi,  out  of  Thessalonica,  out  of  Be- 
roea,  out  of  Athens  but  he  turns  up  in  Corinth 
determined  to  go  on  with  his  work.  It  was  not 
because  he  did  not  feel  the  sting  of  defeat,  but 
because  he  was  patient.  All  bleeding,  he  went 
forward  knowing  he  would  only  receive  fresh 
wounds.  His  sufferings  did  not  cause  him  to 
whimper  or  roar.  They  increased  his  stock  of 
endurance.  To  the  Romans  he  wrote — “We  tri¬ 
umph  even  in  our  troubles,  knowing  that  trouble 
produces  endurance,  and  endurance  produces 
character.” 

It  is  hard  to  be  patient  with  people  who  are  low 
minded  and  mean.  If  men  impugn  our  motives 
when  we  know  that  our  motives  are  high,  we  are 


170 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


ready  to  give  up  at  once.  Some  men  will  work 
without  money,  and  some  will  work  without 
thanks,  but  hardly  any  one  will  work  in  an  atmos¬ 
phere  poisoned  by  suspicion  and  lies.  The  Church 
in  Corinth  was  the  most  trying  of  all  Paul’s 
churches.  It  was  there  the  innuendoes  were  the 
foulest  and  hardest  to  bear.  But  it  is  at  the  end 
of  his  second  Corinthian  letter,  that  we  find  his 
fullest  toned  benediction,  the  one  which  the 
Church  has  adopted  throughout  the  world  as  the 
most  fitting  with  which  a  Pastor  can  express  his 
love  for  his  people :  “The  grace  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  and  the  love  of  God  and  the  fel¬ 
lowship  of  the  Holy  Spirit  be  with  you  all.” 
When  Paul  wrote  those  words,  he  gave  exhibi¬ 
tion  of  “the  love  which  bears  all  things,  believes 
all  things,  hopes  all  things,  and  endures  all 
things.” 

One  of  the  finest  exhibitions  of  patience  in  the 
history  of  the  Church  is  that  which  Paul  dis¬ 
played  in  carrying  out  his  project  of  raising 
money  in  his  European  congregations  for  the 
impoverished  Christians  in  Jerusalem.  It  was  a 
daring  thing  to  undertake.  Collections  are  always 
certain  to  be  opposed,  especially  if  they  are  for 
people  of  another  race  far  away  whom  one  never 
expects  to  see.  To  many,  Paul’s  idea  seemed 
quixotic,  and  to  others  it  furnished  evidence 
that  he  was  not  altogether  straight.  With  a  wink, 
they  intimated  that  not  all  the  money  would  ever 


HIS  PATIENCE 


171 

get  to  Jerusalem.  It  is  such  talk  which  takes 
the  heart  out  of  strong  men  who  are  sacrificing 
for  a  noble  cause.  Even  the  greatest  heroes  lose 
some  of  their  grit  when  they  are  pelted  with  mud. 
The  proud  blood  of  Paul  must  have  tingled  when 
he  heard  these  vile  insinuations.  But  he  did  not 
show  his  disgust  or  withdraw  from  the  work. 
The  work  was  too  important  to  be  dropped  be¬ 
cause  of  the  calumnies  of  a  few  evil  hearted 
critics.  He  pushed  it  with  renewed  vigor,  and 
cheerfully  suggested  that  agents  be  appointed  by 
the  Churches  who  should  carry  the  money  to 
Jerusalem.  He  was  not  sulky,  he  did  not  pout, 
for  he  said  he  would  go  along  too  if  that  course 
met  with  their  approval. 

Once  started  toward  Jerusalem,  he  met  an¬ 
other  kind  of  opposition,  which  tried  his  heart 
sorely.  His  friends  urged  him  not  to  go  to 
Jerusalem  because  of  the  plottings  there  of  his 
foes.  They  knew  the  ferocity  of  a  Jerusalem 
mob,  and  they  protested  against  Paul  risking  h is 
life  there.  But  the  tenacity  of  his  will  could  not 
be  broken.  Having  put  his  hand  to  the  plow,  he 
refused  to  look  back.  Having  begun  to  build  a 
tower,  he  was  determined  to  finish  it.  He  loved 
to  complete  the  things  he  began.  To  his  friends 
at  Miletus  he  said,  “I  want  to  have  the  joy  of 
finishing  my  course.”  It  is  when  we  see  hint 
setting  his  face  steadfastly  to  go  to  Jerusalem, 
tenaciously  clinging  to  the  purpose  he  had  forme J 


172 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


\ 


years  before,  and  determined  at  all  hazards  to 
carry  it  triumphantly  through,  brushing  aside  the 
taunts  of  his  enemies  and  the  expostulations  of 
his  friends,  his  heart  all  the  time  thinking  of  the 
needy  men  and  women  to  whom  he  was  bringing 
relief,  that  we  read  with  quickened  pulse-beat  the 
words  which  we  repeat  over  the  caskets  of  our 
dead — “Wherefore  my  beloved  brothers,  be  ye 
steadfast,  immovable,  always  abounding  in  the 
work  of  the  Lord.”  It  is  when  we  think  of  him 
patiently  plying  his  needle  at  night  that  he  may 
hr.ve  the  day  free  to  spend  in  telling  men  about 
Jesus,  carrying  his  work  forward  in  the  midst  of 
suffering  and  disappointment  and  discouragement 
and  failure,  that  there  comes  into  his  words  a 
new  pathos :  “Let  us  not  be  weary  in  well-doing, 
for  in  due  season  we  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not.” 
He  did  not  faint.  Clement  of  Rome  writing  to 
the  Corinthians  less  than  forty  years  after  Paul’s 
death,  refers  to  his  amazing  and  unparalleled  pa¬ 
tience.  These  are  Clement’s  words :  “After  he 
had  seven  times  worn  bonds,  had  been  exiled,  had 
been  stoned,  had  played  the  herald  in  the  East 
and  in  the  West,  he  won  the  noble  renown  of 
his  faith,  having  taught  the  whole  world  righte¬ 
ousness,  and  passed  to  the  boundary  of  the  West. 
And  after  testifying  before  the  rulers  so  was 

he  rid  of  the  world,  and  went  to  the  Holy  Place, 

* 

having  proved  a  very  great  exemplar  of  endur- 


ance. 


XIII 

HIS  COURAGE 


XIII 


HIS  COURAGE 

When  the  average  Christian  is  asked  to  name 
the  most  vivid  trait  of  Paul’s  character,  his  an¬ 
swer  nine  times  out  of  ten,  is  “Courage.”  This 
has  been  the  answer  in  all  the  generations.  Paul 
is  universally  recognized  as  above  all  others  the 
hero  of  the  New  Testament.  Art  has  always 
loved  to  picture  him  with  a  sword.  Sometimes  he 
rests  on  a  sword,  sometimes  he  holds  a  sword, 
sometimes  two  swords.  The  sword  is  the  symbol 
of  his  life  and  the  emblem  of  his  career.  He  is 
the  anointed  representative  of  the  Church  mili¬ 
tant.  Through  the  centuries,  he  has  been  the  in- 
spirer  of  crusaders  and  reformers  and  all  who 
have  contended  mightily  for  the  right.  In  the 
midst  of  conflict,  men  hear  his  thrilling  exhorta¬ 
tion  as  a  voice  from  heaven,  “Put  on  the  whole 
armor  of  God.” 

The  illustrations  of  Paul’s  courage  are  usually 
found  in  his  experiences  among  bandits  in  moun¬ 
tain  passes,  his  behavior  when  face  to  face  with 
mobs  in  Lystra  and  Ephesus  and  Jerusalem,  and 
his  conduct  in  time  of  shipwreck  when  on  his 

i7S 


iy6 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


way  to  Rome.  But  his  courage  in  those  situa¬ 
tions  was  not  exceptional.  Bravery  in  the  midst 
of  bandits  is  not  uncommon,  and  many  a  man 
has  faced  a  mob  without  flinching.  Courage  on 
the  deck  of  a  sinking  ship  is  an  every  day  story. 
Thousands  of  men  have  shown  courage  equal  to 
that  which  Paul  displayed  in  the  midst  of  his 
physical  perils.  After  the  experience  of  the  great 
war,  his  list  of  thrilling  exploits  does  not  greatly 
impress  us.  The  generation  which  passed  through 
the  horrors  of  the  wildest  of  all  world-conflicts, 
and  which  read  every  day  of  feats  of  physical 
daring  unsurpassed  in  the  annals  of  mankind, 
cannot  be  expected  to  be  awestruck  by  the  hero¬ 
ism  of  a  preacher  in  the  presence  of  a  few  physi¬ 
cal  dangers  nineteen  hundred  years  ago.  The  war 
proved  that  physical  courage  is  the  most  abundant 
of  all  our  virtues.  We  have  a  larger  stock  of 
such  courage  on  hand  than  of  any  other  form 
of  excellence.  Every  town  has  in  it  boys  who 
have  the  mettle  of  the  men  who  died  at  Ther¬ 
mopylae,  and  who  are  made  of  the  same  stuff  as 
the  soldiers  of  the  tenth  legion  of  Caesar.  What 
is  recorded  of  Paul’s  physical  courage  is  not  suffi¬ 
cient  to  lift  him  to  a  place  among  the  immor¬ 
tals. 

We  are  to  look  for  proof  of  his  courage  in 
another  quarter.  It  is  in  the  realm  of  the  intel¬ 
lect  that  Paul  is  phenomenally  brave.  His  in¬ 
tellectual  daring  has  never  been  surpassed.  His 


HIS  COURAGE 


1771 


courage  which  wins  and  holds  the  admiration  of 
the  world  is  not  physical,  but  moral.  We  find 
him  at  his  best  not  when  contending  with  brig¬ 
ands  or  bigots,  or  when  floating  a  day  and  a 
night  on  the  deep,  but  when  he  is  passing  de¬ 
served  condemnation  on  two  of  his  most  valued 
friends.  What  is  the  fury  of  a  mob  compared 
with  the  hurt  eyes  of  a  friend?  What  is  a  storm 
at  sea  compared  with  the  storm  which  rages  in 
the  soul  when  one  is  compelled  by  conscience  to 
pursue  a  course  which  brings  pain  to  those  who 
love  him?  Paul  saw  clearly  near  the  very  be¬ 
ginning  of  his  Christian  life  that  God  in  Christ 
had  broken  down  the  middle  wall  of  partition 
between  Jew  and  Gentile,  and  that  Gentile  and 
Jew  stand  on  an  equal  footing  in  the  household 
of  faith.  To  that  great  truth  he  was  irrevocably 
committed,  and  wherever  he  went  he  proclaimed 
it  with  passionate  joy.  The  whole  Church  was 
committed  to  it.  Peter  was  the  first  of  the  Apos¬ 
tles  to  recognize  it  and  act  on  it.  He  sat  down 
and  ate  with  uncircumcised  Romans,  because  he 
was  convinced  that  they  had  in  their  hearts  the 
Spirit  of  God.  Barnabas  was  committed  to  it. 
He  had  been  one  of  the  sponsors  of  the  radical 
work  carried  on  in  Antioch,  where  Greeks  in  large 
numbers  were  brought  into  the  Church  without 
obedience  to  the  Jewish  law.  But  in  all  great 
movements,  there  are  eddies  and  backward  swirls 
of  the  stream.  There  came  a  day  when  Peter 


i78 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


and  Barnabas  were  not  willing  to  maintain  the 
position  they  had  taken.  Conservatives  were 
complaining  that  their  consciences  were  being 
hurt,  and  that  they  could  no  longer  fellowship 
with  men  who  had  never  been  circumcised.  This 
sentiment  became  so  strong  that  Peter  did  not 
dare  to  resist  it.  In  the  interest  of  peace,  he 
fell  in  with  the  group  which  seemed  to  be  strong¬ 
est,  and  refused  to  eat  at  the  same  table  with 
Gentiles  who  declined  to  obey  the  Jewish  law. 
Overpowered  by  his  influence,  the  big-hearted 
Barnabas  followed  his  example.  The  great  truth 
which  to  Paul  was  the  glory  of  the  new  religion 
was  thus  surrendered  by  two  of  its  foremost  ex¬ 
pounders.  A  critical  hour  in  the  history  of  re¬ 
ligion  had  arrived.  The  Christian  ship  was  going 
on  the  rocks.  A  painful  duty  had  to  be  per¬ 
formed,  and  Paul  was  the  man  who  had  to  do  it. 
He  was  compelled  to  set  himself  in  opposition 
to  Peter,  a  recognized  authority  and  pillar  in  the 
Church,  a  man  to  whom  Jesus  himself  had  given 
the  name  of  Rock.  And  now  Paul  must  stand 
up  and  accuse  this  Rock  of  wavering.  More¬ 
over  Paul  was  under  obligation  to  Peter.  Peter 
had  entertained  him  in  his  home  for  two  weeks 
in  Jerusalem.  Peter  had  told  him  the  full  story 
of  the  earthly  life  of  Jesus.  Peter  was  his  friend. 
Peter  had  given  him  the  right  hand  of  fellow¬ 
ship.  It  was  worth  much  to  Paul  that  Peter 
should  continue  to  be  his  friend.  And  now  Paul 


HIS  COURAGE 


179 


must  reprimand  him.  He  cannot  do  it  behind  his 
back.  He  must  do  it  to  his  face.  He  cannot  do 
it  in  secret.  What  Peter  has  done  has  been  done 
openly,  and  the  reprimand  to  be  effective  must 
be  given  in  public.  Paul  was  one  of  the  most 
tender  hearted  and  sensitive  of  men.  He  shrank 
from  giving  pain.  He  winced  at  the  thought  of 
hurting  Peter’s  feelings.  But  when  an  influen¬ 
tial  religious  leader  is  untrue  to  his  principles, 
some  one  must  correct  him.  When  a  good  man 
through  temporary  weakness  is  jeopardizing  a 
noble  cause,  some  one  must  come  to  the  rescue. 
And  so  Paul  stood  up,  right  in  front  of  Peter — 
a  more  terrible  ordeal  than  facing  a  brigand  or 
foe — and  opposed  him,  telling  him  frankly  in 
the  presence  of  the  whole  body  of  Christians  that 
he  was  not  playing  the  part  of  a  consistent  Chris¬ 
tian  man.  What  this  cost  Paul,  the  record  does 
not  say.  Luke  found  the  episode  so  distressing 
that  he  gives  it  no  place  in  his  narrative.  Paul 
had  probably  talked  it  over  with  him  in  tears. 

But  this  condemnation  of  Peter  was  only  a 
part  of  Paul’s  agony.  In  rebuking  Peter,  Paul 
rebuked  Barnabas  also,  for  Barnabas  had  taken 
a  place  by  Peter’s  side.  “That  was  the  most  un- 
kindest  cut  of  all.”  There  is  heartbreak  in  Paul’s 
words,  “Even  Barnabas  was  carried  away.”  As 
much  as  to  say,  “The  last  man  in  the  world  you 
would  have  expected  to  succumb,  the  man  who 
had  a  warm  heart  for  all  Gentiles,  and  who  had 


i8o 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


enthusiastically  received  them  into  the  Church 
without  circumcision,  and  without  obedience  to 
the  rite  of  ceremonial  ablutions  of  the  hands  be¬ 
fore  eating,  and  who  had  been  with  me  on  that 
wonderful  evangelistic  tour  to  Derbe  and  back 
again,  even  Barnabas  could  not  stand  up  against 
the  pressure  of  the  Judaizers  after  Peter  had 
fallen.”  And  so  Barnabas  had  to  be  rebuked, 
the  man  to  whom  Paul  owed  more — humanly 
speaking— than  to  any  other  man  in  the  world. 
It  was  Barnabas  who  had  given  Paul  his  chance. 
It  was  Barnabas  who,  when  nobody  in  Jerusalem 
had  faith  in  Paul's  conversion,  had  introduced 
him  to  the  Apostles,  assuring  them  that  he  was  not 
a  fraud.  It  was  Barnabas  who  had  invited  Paul 
to  Antioch.  Barnabas  was  the  man  who  had 
opened  the  door.  Barnabas  was  the  hero  who 
had  shared  with  Paul  the  dangers  and  hardships 
of  the  first  missionary  journey,  who  had  tenderly 
bent  over  him  after  the  stoning  in  Lystra  and 
coaxed  him  back  to  consciousness  again.  Barna¬ 
bas  had  never  failed  him.  Barnabas  had  been 
faithful  all  the  way.  And  now,  even  his  com¬ 
rade  Barnabas  was  deserting  the  cause.  To  op¬ 
pose  a  dear  and  tried  friend  cuts  deep  into  the 
heart.  But  Paul  was  a  hero.  He  was  heroic 
enough  to  resist  and  rebuke  even  his  friends. 

It  is  this  standing  up  against  every  conceivable 
form  of  opposition  which  reveals  the  intrepidity 
of  Paul's  resolute  soul.  He  did  things  which 


HIS  COURAGE 


l8l 


only  a  man  of  amazing  daring  would  ever  have 
been  capable  of  doing.  For  instance,  he  gave 
the  Christian  religion  a  new  verbal  dress.  He 
coined  for  it  a  vocabulary  which  has  remained 
on  men’s  lips  to  the  present  hour.  He  discarded 
almost  entirely  the  words  of  Jesus,  and  substi¬ 
tuted  words  of  his  own.  He  was  undoubtedly 
acquainted  with  the  words  of  Jesus,  but  he  did 
not  use  them.  There  is  hardly  a  trace  in  his  let¬ 
ters  or  in  any  of  his  recorded  sermons,  of  our 
Lord’s  parables,  or  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
or  of  the  discourse  in  the  upper  chamber  on  the 
last  night.  This  is  amazing.  For  the  oral  gos¬ 
pel  was  in  the  air  wherever  Christian  believers 
assembled  together.  Paul  could  not  have  spent 
two  weeks  with  the  swift-tongued  Peter,  without 
learning  many  of  the  things  which  Jesus  had  said. 
Paul  was  the  slave  of  Jesus.  He  prided  himself 
on  imitating  Jesus,  and  yet  he  did  not  copy  his 
words.  He  poured  the  old  wine  into  new  wine 
skins.  He  invented  a  new  set  of  terms.  He 
forged  a  new  instrument  with  which  to  convert 
the  world.  The  Christ  of  the  Epistles  is  the  Je¬ 
sus  of  the  Gospels,  and  yet  one  feels  on  passing 
out  of  the  Gospels  into  the  Epistles,  that  he  is 
passing  into  a  different  world.  The  old  language 
has  passed  away.  All  the  words  have  become 
new.  To  drop  the  words  of  the  Son  of  God,  and 
adopt  others  of  his  own  choosing,  that  was  cour¬ 
age  almost  to  the  verge  of  audacity.  If  Paul 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


1 8  2 

could  preach  the  religion  of  Jesus  without  using 
the  language  of  Jesus,  is  it  going  too  far  to  say 
that  we  can  preach  the  religion  of  Jesus  without 
using  the  language  of  Paul? 

It  is  when  we  come  to  Paul’s  preaching  of 
Jesus  as  the  Messiah,  that  we  are  most  deeply 
impressed  by  his  indomitable  spirit.  It  is  impos¬ 
sible  to  appreciate  his  boldness  fully,  because  we 
are  not  Jews  of  the  first  century  and  cannot  place 
ourselves  in  the  mental  attitude  of  the  men  who 
heard  Paul  preach.  The  Jews  had  for  centuries 
looked  for  a  Messiah,  a  glorious  Messiah,  mighty 
and  all-victorious.  He  was  to  deliver  his  people 
from  bondage  and  trample  their  enemies  under 
his  feet.  The  idea  of  a  suffering  Messiah  was 
abhorrent  to  the  popular  heart.  The  thought  of 
a  defeated  Messiah  was  incredible  and  revolting. 
A  Messiah  who  would  allow  himself  to  be  cru¬ 
cified  as  a  malefactor  by  an  ungodly  Pagan  Power 
like  Rome,  was  the  climax  of  irrationality  and 
blasphemy.  The  recoil  in  Peter’s  soul  when  Je¬ 
sus  told  him  he  was  going  to  Jerusalem  and  suf¬ 
fer  many  things  and  be  killed,  was  repeated  in  the 
heart  of  every  Jew  when  he  heard  the  word 
“Messiah”  linked  with  the  cross.  The  cross  was 
a  stumbling  block.  Any  mention  of  the  cross 
shut  the  door  of  the  Jewish  heart  instantly.  No 
devout  Jew  could  hear  a  man  call  the  crucified 
Jesus  the  Messiah  without  being  driven  to  fierce 
indignation  and  ungovernable  rage.  But  this  was 


HIS  COURAGE 


1 83 

-  Paul’s  message.  Jesus  had  been  crucified,  and 
Jesus  was  the  Messiah.  He  preached  it  in  every 
synagogue  into  which  he  could  gain  admission. 
When  they  put  him  out  of  the  synagogue,  he 
preached  it  in  a  private  house.  When  no  private 
house  was  available,  he  preached  it  in  the  street. 
He  preached  it  everywhere.  When  he  was  driven 
out  of  one  city,  he  went  on  to  the  next  and 
preached  it  there.  When  cast  out  of  that  city 
he  fled  to  another  and  continued  his  preaching. 
He  stirred  up  riots  but  kept  on  preaching.  He 
kindled  fires  which  threatened  to  burn  him  up, 
but  he  never  changed  his  message.  He  was  pur¬ 
sued  by  bloodthirsty  mobs,  but  when  he  got  a 
chance,  he  turned  and  began  preaching  to  the 
mob.  It  was  always  the  same  message — “Jesus 
is  the  Messiah — men  crucified  him,  and  God 
raised  him  from  the  dead.”  This  is  what  he 
preached  in  Damascus,  where  he  was  to  win  re¬ 
nown  as  the  exterminator  of  the  Church.  They 
called  him  renegade,  turncoat,  apostate,  but  he 
kept  on  preaching  until  they  drove  him  out.  He 
preached  in  Jerusalem  where  he  had  won  a  high 
reputation  as  an  enemy  of  Jesus,  and  he  kept 
on  preaching  until  he  had  raised  the  blood  of 
Jerusalem  to  fever  heat.  No  doubt  he  preached 
also  in  Tarsus,  but  the  reception  he  met  there 
was  so  distressful  that  he  never  referred  to  it 
in  any  of  his  letters.  Wherever  he  went,  he  was 
feared  and  hated  and  cursed  for  his  preaching, 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


184 

but  he  was  Paul  the  dauntless,  and  he  went  on¬ 
ward  along  his  unflinching  way.  His  message 
was  unbelievable,  ridiculous,  and  blasphemous  to 
nearly  all  of  the  pious  and  sensible  Jews  of  his 
day,  but  he  kept  on  declaring  that  Jesus  was  in¬ 
deed  the  Messiah,  the  dream  of  the  prophets,  and 
the  hope  of  the  world,  and  that  though  men  cru¬ 
cified  him,  God  raised  him  from  the  dead.  Most 
good  people  were  ashamed  of  what  he  called  his 
Gospel,  but  he  said :  “I  am  not  ashamed  of  it. 
I  should  like  to  preach  it  in  the  capital  of  the 
world.” 

The  other  section  of  the  world  was  hardly 
less  hostile  than  the  Jewish  section.  To  the  Jews 
the  cross  was  a  stumbling  block,  and  to  the  Greeks 
it  was  tomfoolery.  When  the  Jews  heard  Paul 
preach,  they  gnashed  their  teeth ;  when  the  Greeks 
heard  him,  they  smiled.  To  the  Greek  mind  the 
story  of  the  resurrection  was  ridiculous.  The 
Greeks  more  than  any  other  people  of  the  first 
century  had  the  scientific  mind.  They  understood 
best  the  laws  of  nature.  They  knew  what  could 
happen  and  what  could  not  happen.  They  knew 
that  a  dead  man  could  not  come  out  of  his  grave. 
They  knew  that  a  man  who  was  crucified  could 
not  be  a  god.  Any  one  who  said  that  Jesus  arose 
from  the  dead  was  talking  nonsense.  And  yet 
that  was  what  Paul  always  talked.  He  used  the 
word  “resurrection”  so  often,  that  the  men  on  the 
outskirts  of  his  Athenian  crowd  supposed  it  was 


HIS  COURAGE 


185 

the  name  of  a  goddess.  When  he  declared — 
“God  raised  him  from  the  dead,”  men  stared  at 
him  in  disdain.  Men  of  education  could  not  ac¬ 
cept  his  preposterous  and  inconceivable  tale.  But 
he  kept  on  saying — “God  raised  him  from  the 
dead.”  To  his  Greek  audience,  that  was  the  cli¬ 
max  of  his  ludicrous  story.  In  the  face  of  pity, 
and  scorn,  and  disgust,  Paul  kept  on  saying, 
“God  raised  him  from  the  dead.”*  Paul  on  Mars’ 
Hill  at  the  very  center  and  abode  of  Grecian 
culture,  assuring  representatives  of  the  leading 
schools  of  thought  in  the  most  enlightened  city 
of  the  world,  that  a  crucified  Jew  came  out  of 
his  grave,  and  that  God  has  appointed  that  Jew 
to'  be  the  judge  of  mankind,  is  the  highest  exhi¬ 
bition  of  heroism  which  the  Book  of  Acts  re¬ 
cords.  Paul’s  act  that  day  was  one  of  the  most 
daring  strokes  ever  struck  by  man  in  the  entire 
history  of  the  human  race.  It  takes  more  cour¬ 
age  for  an  educated  man  of  refined  sensibilities 
to  affront  the  intelligence  of  a  cultivated  audi¬ 
ence  than  to  give  offense  to  ignorant  peasants 
whose  powers  of  reasoning  are  undeveloped,  and 
whose  intellectual  judgments  are  of  little  account. 
The  fury  of  the  mob  in  Lystra  was  no  such  test 
of  courage  as  the  cold  ridicule  of  the  critical 
scholars  in  Athens./^  The  contemptuous  laugh  of 
those  lords  of  culture  Paul  never  forgot.  He 

/1 

never  went  back  to  Athens.  He  wrote  no  letter 
to  the  Athenians.  For  weeks  after  his  Athenian 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


1 86 

experience,  he  was  weak  in  body  and  depressed 
in  spirit,  but  his  courage  was  unabated.  He  de¬ 
termined  to  go  on  preaching  that  Jesus  is  the 
Messiah,  that  men  crucified  him,  and  that  God 
raised  him  from  the  dead.  Here  is  courage  like 
unto  the  courage  of  the  Son  of  God, 


XIV 


HIS  COURTESY 


XIV 


HIS  COURTESY 

A  man  may  be  courageous,  and  not  be  cour¬ 
teous.  People  who  have  what  they  call  the  cour¬ 
age  of  their  convictions,  sometimes  have  slight 
regard  for  the  convictions  of  others.  A  man  of 
forceful  personality  is  apt  to  encroach,  often¬ 
times  unwittingly,  on  the  rights  of  his  fellows. 
Impulsive  and  precipitate  natures  are  prone  to  be 
heedless  of  the  proprieties  and  embellishments  of 
conduct.  A  man  conscious  of  being  sent  on  a 
divine  mission  is  tempted  to  ride  roughshod  over 
men  not  professedly  in  close  touch  with  heaven. 
Good  men  are  in  many  cases  rude,  and  those  who 
are  rich  in  noble  actions  are  often  deficient  in 
good  manners.  Politeness  is  a  virtue  too  often 
conspicuous  even  in  religious  circles  for  its  ab¬ 
sence.  Some  Christians  are  so  intent  on  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  the  virtues,  they  have  no  time  left 
for  the  cultivation  of  the  graces.  But  courtesy 
is  one  of  the  finest  fruits  of  the  spirit,  an  indis¬ 
pensable  feature  of  a  character  complete.  A 
Christian  is  under  bonds  to  be  everywhere  and 
always  a  gentleman. 

189 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


190 

Paul  was  as  courteous  as  he  was  courageous. 
He  had  the  instincts  and  the  manners  of  a  gentle¬ 
man.  These  instincts  were  deeply  rooted  in  him, 
and  they  found  expression  in  the  most  unlikely 
places.  We  come  upon  numerous  exhibitions  of 
’  his  good  breeding  in  his  discourses.  His  address 
in  Athens  is  a  model  of  courteous  speech.  Be¬ 
fore  he  began  speaking,  Paul  had  overheard 
sundry  slighting  remarks  about  him,  but  these 
did  not  disturb  the  urbanity  of  his  spirit.  He 
begins  as  though  all  his  hearers  are  friendly  to 
him,  saying,  “Men  of  Athens,  I  observe  at  every 
turn  that  you  are  a  most  religious  people.”  The 
translation  in  the  King  James’  Version  makes  him 
say — “I  perceive  that  in  all  things  you  are  too 
superstitious.”  This  is  one  of  the  most  unfor¬ 
tunate  of  all  the  blunders  in  that  justly  venerated 
version.  Paul  could  not  have  said  a  thing  like 
that.  It  was  foreign  to  his  nature.  That  would 
have  been  slapping  his  audience  in  the  face.  No 
man  of  sense  ever  insults  his  hearers  in  his  open¬ 
ing  sentence.  Paul  was  a  model  of  courtesy 
whenever  he  opened  his  mouth  to  speak.  Pie  be¬ 
gins  by  complimenting  the  Athenians  on  their 
devotion  to  the  gods.  He  does  not  quote  to  them 
the  Hebrew  prophets  but  the  Greek  poets,  thus 
acknowledging  that  great  religious  truths  had 
come  to  the  world  through  them.  The  Athen¬ 
ians  are  not  entirely  ignorant  of  God,  but  he  de¬ 
sires  to  tell  them  more.  He  begins  with  his  hear- 


HIS  COURTESY 


IQI 

ers  where  they  are  with  the  hope  that  he  may 
carry  them  where  he  wants  them  to  be.  But  his 
audience  was  impatient  and  left  him  before  his 
argument  was  completed.  On  that  day  the  pol¬ 
ished  Greek  was  not  so  polite  as  the  Christian 
Jew. 

Even  when  Paul  was  interrupted  in  his  ser¬ 
mons,  he  did  not  fall  into  a  resentful  mood  or 
take  vengeance  in  boorish  retorts.  When  Festus 
broke  in  on  him  with  a  loud,  “Paul,  you  are  mad* 
your  learning  is  driving  you  insane,”  the  courte¬ 
ous  reply  was,  “I  am  not  mad,  your  excellency* 
but  I  am  speaking  the  sober  truth.”  When  King 
Agrippa  became  sarcastic  and  said,  “At  this  rate 
it  won’t  be  long  before  you  believe  you  have  made 
me  a  Christian,”  Paul,  not  at  all  ruffled  by  the 
sneering  words,  calmly  replied,  “Long  or  short, 
I  would  to  God  that  you  and  all  my  hearers  to¬ 
day  might  become  what  I  am,”  and  then  glancing 
at  his  chained  wrists,  he  added  “except  these 
bonds.”  That  was  courtesy  which  even  Agrippa 
must  have  recognized  as  perfect. 

1  Paul  was  respectful  to  a  mob.  When  the  mob 
in  Jerusalem  seized  him  and  dragged  him  out  of 
,the  temple  and  began  beating  him,  determined 
to  kill  him,  he  never  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that 
these  men  were  human  beings,  members  of  his 
own  race,  his  countrymen,  and  as  soon  as  he  got 
a  chance  to  speak,  he  hushed  the  crowd  by  say¬ 
ing  in  their  mother  tongue,  “Brothers  and  Fa- 


192 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


thers,  listen  to  what  I  have  to  say  in  my  defense.” 
He  then  went  on  to  state  the  simple  facts  of  his 
experience,  in  a  tone  which  was  so  friendly  and 
conciliatory,  that  every  heart  was  for  a  time  sub¬ 
dued.  It  was  not  till  he  mentioned  the  word 
“Gentiles,”  that  pandemonium  broke  loose  again, 
and  the  Chief  Captain  was  obliged  to  hustle  him 
into  the  castle. 

It  is  in  the  beginnings  and  endings  of  his  let¬ 
ters  that  we  find  some  of  the  most  striking  illus¬ 
trations  of  the  texture  of  his  fine  and  gentle 
spirit.  These  beginnings  and  endings  have  been 
too  much  neglected.  As  long  as  the  letters  were 
considered  arsenals  of  proof  texts,  his  salutations 
and  benedictions  attracted  scant  attention.  Men 
looked  for  doctrines  and  not  for  character,  pass¬ 
ing  over  some  of  the  most  exquisite  and  valu¬ 
able  paragraphs  in  the  Scriptures,  It  is  in  these 
•  neglected  passages,  that  we  find  some  of  the  full¬ 
est  disclosures  of  the  rare  loveliness  of  Paul’s 
soul.  When  he  wrote  his  letters  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians,  Silas  and  Timothy  were  with  him.  They 
had  been  with  him  in  his  work  in  Thessalonica. 
They  knew  the  Thessalonians  and  the  Thessa- 
lonians  knew  them.  At  the  beginning  of  each  of 
these  letters,  Paul  writes  down  all  three  names. 
All  through  the  letters  the  plural  pronoun  “we” 
occurs  again  and  again.  Timothy  and  Silas  are 
Paul’s  assistants,  far  below  him  in  ability  and 
knowledge  and  character,  but  he  links  their  names 


HIS  COURTESY 


193 


with  his,  using  the  pronoun  “we”  as  though  these 
young  men  along  with  him  were  the  joint  authors 
of  the  instructions  and  exhortations. 

Paul  is  never  more  gracious  than  when  he  is 
sending  personal  messages  to  his  friends.  No 
matter  how  abstruse  or  obscure  he  may  be  in  the 
body  of  his  letter,  at  the  end  of  it  he  becomes 
charmingly  human.  Every  sentence  is  redolent 
with  the  aroma  of  the  heart.  We  can  understand 
every  word  which  he  writes.  Probably  the  most 
neglected  of  all  his  pages  is  the  last  page  of  his 
letter  to  the  Romans.  That  is  a  page  which  most 
persons  nowadays  skip  because  it  is  so  crowded 
with  proper  names.  It  contains  nothing  about  the 
sovereignty  of  God,  or  the  person  of  Christ,  or 
the  meaning  of  the  atonement,  or  the  immortal¬ 
ity  of  the  soul,  and  therefore  it  furnishes  no  grist 
for  the  theological  mill.  But  it  is  one  of  the  most 
illumining  of  all  Paul’s  productions.  It  is  a  fine 
illustration  of  what  inspiration  can  do.  No  man 
could  write  such  a  chapter  unless  he  had  in  him 
the  Spirit  of  God.  We  do  not  know  these  peo¬ 
ple  whom  Paul  mentions,  and  therefore  we  are 
not  especially  interested  in  them,  but  what  he 
says  of  them  is  of  vital  importance  as  throwing 
light  on  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  Apostle.  We 
come  to  know  him  better  by  the  way  he  treats 
his  friends.  Most  of  these  persons  were  poor 
and  obscure.  Several  of  them  were  no  doubt 
slaves.  Some  of  them  had  known  little  but  trou- 


194 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


ble.  If  we  only  knew  their  circumstances  and 
the  hardships  they  had  passed  through,  this  whole 
chapter  would  blaze  with  glory.  No  other  chap¬ 
ter  in  Paul’s  letters  makes  such  heavy  demands 
on  the  imagination  as  this  one.  Unless  one  can 
visualize  the  persons  whose  names  Paul  has  writ¬ 
ten,  one  reads  the  chapter  with  flagging  interest 
and  little  profit.  The  paragraphs  when  carefully 
scrutinized  are  found  to  be  filled  with  delicate 
touches  which  open  up  Paul’s  heart  in  wonderful 
ways.  “Help  Phoebe,”  he  writes.  “Help  her  in 
every  way  you  can.  She  has  been  a  helper  of 
many,  a  helper  of  me.”  “Give  my  affectionate 
regards  to  Prisca  and  Aquila.  They  hazarded 
their  lives  for  me,  and  worked  long  by  my  side.” 
“Remember  me  to  Persis,  who  did  a  lot  of  hard 
work,  and  to  Mary  who  labored  so  much  for  us 
all.”  “Give  my  kind  regards  to  Rufus  that  choice 
disciple,  and  also  to  his  mother,  she  was  indeed  a 
mother  to  me.”  “Salute  Nereus  and  also  his  sis¬ 
ter,  and  all  the  believers  who  worship  with  them.” 
He  had  something  good  to  say  of  each  one. 
Many  of  them  he  calls  “fellow-workers.”  Three 
of  them  he  calls  “beloved.”  Three  are  his  kins¬ 
men,  two  are  his  fellow-prisoners.  He  does  not 
omit  the  women.  If  a  man  has  a  sister,  he  men¬ 
tions  her.  If  he  has  a  mother,  she  is  not  forgot¬ 
ten.  If  he  has  a  company  of  Christians  worship¬ 
ping  under  his  roof,  the  whole  company  is  in¬ 
cluded  in  the  benediction.  If  the  suffering  en- 


HIS  COURTESY 


1 95 


dured  has  been  exceptional,  that  fact  is  made 
note  of.  If  the  labor  done  has  been  unusual,  that 
also  is  called  to  mind.  The  first  convert  in  the 
Province  of  Asia  has  a  fixed  place  in  his  heart, 
and  so  also  has  Apelles  who  has  been  tried  and 
found  worthy.  Paul  had  a  habit  of  mentioning 
his  friends  by  name  in  his  prayers:  it  was  nat¬ 
ural  for  him  to  name  them  in  his  letters.  But 
Paul  is  not  the  only  one  whose  heart  is  full  of 
good  wishes.  Others  also  desire  to  send  saluta¬ 
tions,  and  so  their  names  are  included,  Timothy, 
and  Lucius,  and  Jason,  and  Sosipater,  and  Gaius, 
and  Erastus,  and  Quartus,  and  even  Tertius  the 
Scribe.  To  a  modern  congregation,  the  last  chap¬ 
ter  of  Romans  is  insufferably  dull.  But  how  eyes 
must  have  sparkled  and  how  hearts  must  have 
throbbed  when  it  was  read  to  the  congregation 
in  Rome.  To  the  men  and  women  whose  names 
were  mentioned,  it  was  the  very  core  of  the  whole 
letter.  It  did  more  to  hearten  them  in  following 
Jesus,  than  all  Paul’s  philosophy  of  salvation. 

Paul  was  considerate  of  others’  feelings.  He 
never  willingly  hurt  anyone.  He  told  the  Corin¬ 
thians  that  he  was  staying  away  from  Corinth, 
because  he  thought  his  absence  might  make  it 
easier  for  them  to  settle  their  cases  of  discipline. 
In  his  letter  to  the  Romans,  he  carefully  guards 
himself  against  possible  misunderstanding.  He 
had  written,  “I  yearn  to  see  you  that  I  may  im¬ 
part  to  you  some  spiritual  gift.”  But  he  did  not 


196 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


quite  like  the  sound  of  that.  It  sounded  a  little 
bumptious,  and  so  he  modifies  it  by  adding — 
“What  I  mean  is  that  I  shall  be  encouraged  by 
meeting  you,  I  by  your  faith  and  you  by  mine.” 
Near  the  end  of  this  same  letter,  he  feels  that 
possibly  he  has  written  too  boldly  and  may  seem 
a  trifle  presumptuous,  and  so  he  assures  his  read¬ 
ers  that  he  has  had  no  intention  of  setting  him¬ 
self  above  them,  for  he  is  certain  that  they  have 
ample  goodness  of  heart,  and  an  abundance  of 
knowledge,  and  are  fully  qualified  to  give  advice 
to  one  another.  His  purpose  has  been  simply  to 
refresh  their  memory,  and  if  he  has  written  some¬ 
what  freely,  it  is  because  God  had  been  so  good 
to  him  as  to  appoint  him  a  minister  to  the  Gen¬ 
tiles. 

He  is  courteous  to  strangers  and  equally  cour¬ 
teous  to  old  friends.  Familiarity  does  not  breed 
carelessness  in  him.  In  writing  to  the  Philip- 
pians  he  is  careful  not  to  seem  inappreciative  of 
their  kindness.  When  he  writes  that  it  was  a 
great  joy  to  find  their  mindfulness  of  him  reviv¬ 
ing,  as  was  shown  in  the  present  which  had  just 
been  received,  he  hastens  to  add,  “Your  mindful¬ 
ness  of  me  was  of  course  never  lacking;  you 
merely  lacked  the  opportunity  of  showing  it.”  He 
does  not  want  them  to  think  that  he  has  been  pin¬ 
ing  for  a  gift,  for  he  had  learned  to  be  content 
with  whatever  he  might  happen  to  have ;  but  nev¬ 
ertheless  he  is  deeply  grateful  to  them  for  what 


HIS  COURTESY 


197 


they  have  sent  him,  not  only  for  what  it  means  to 
him,  but  also  for  what  it  means  for  them.  The 
interest  on  such  an  investment,  he  says,  will  accu¬ 
mulate  to  their  account.  The  gift  which  they  have 
sent  him  is  an  odor  of  sweet  fragrance,  the  sort  of 
sacrifice  which  God  delights  in  and  welcomes. 

He  is  equally  delicate  and  charming  in  writ¬ 
ing  to  Philemon.  He  tells  him  he  is  not  going 
to  order  him  to  do  his  duty,  but  prefers  to  appeal 
to  him  on  the  ground  of  love  to  take  his  run¬ 
away  slave  back.  “If  he  has  stolen  anything  from 
you,”  Paul  says,  “charge  it  up  to  me.  I  will  pay 
you — here  is  the  promise  written  by  my  own 
hand.  Of  course  I  might  remind  you  what  you 
owe  to  me — you  owe  to  me  your  own  soul.  Come 
now  and  make  me  some  return.  Make  me  happy 
by  treating  Onesimus  as  your  own  brother.” 

Paul  had  no  desire  to  lord  it  over  men’s  faith. 
He  assured  the  Corinthians  that  he  did  not  want 
to  overawe  them  by  his  authority.  All  he  desired 
was  to  increase  their  joy  in  living.  His  constant 
aim  was  to  build  them  up.  He  was  considerate 
of  the  rights  of  others.  He  did  not  want  any 
one  to  be  imposed  on.  He  was  especially  con¬ 
siderate  of  the  consciences  of  his  converts.  He 
revered  a  man’s  conscience,  and  would  do  nothing 
to  disparage  it  or  stifle  its  voice.  Many  of  his 
converts  were  full  of  scruples,  some  of  which 
were  foolish.  Men  and  women  in  his  churches 
were  made  wretched  by  misgivings  and  qualms 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


198 

which  came  from  a  mind  painfully  making  its 
way  toward  the  light.  Paul  would  not  allow  any 
Christian  to  go  contrary  to  his  conscience.  If  a 
man  thinks  a  thing  is  wrong,  to  him  at  any  rate 
it  is  wrong,  and  he  ought  not  to  do  it.  More¬ 
over  a  man  who  has  no  such  scruples  should  not 
boast  of  his  superiority  and  act  in  such  a  way  as 
to  cause  his  weaker  brother  to  make  shipwreck 
of  his  faith.  There  was  endless  discussion  in  the 
Gentile  churches  concerning  the  rightfulness  of 
eating  meat  which  had  been  exposed  in  heathen 
temples.  Paul  saw  that  such  meat  was  as  harm¬ 
less  as  any  other  meat.  The  heathen  gods  had  no 
existence,  and  how  could  gods  who  have  no  exist¬ 
ence  contaminate  meat  offered  on  their  altars? 

But  Paul  was  a  gentleman,  and  therefore  he 
was  bound  to  think  of  the  effect  of  his  conduct 
on  his  brothers.  “When  you  sin  against  your 
brother,  you  sin  against  Christ.”  Of  this  Paul 
was  certain,  and  therefore  his  duty  was  clear.  In 
his  usual  impulsive  and  whole-hearted  way,  he 
expressed  his  attitude  in  words  which  are  among 
the  best  known  of  all  the  words  which  ever  came 
from  his  lips:  “If  meat  causes  my  brother  to 
stumble,  I  will  eat  no  flesh  while  the  world 
stands.” 

Another  manifestation  of  his  courtesy  is  seen 
in  his  fixed  policy  of  keeping  away  from  any  field 
in  which  another  Christian  worker  had  labored. 
He  was  unwilling  to  embarrass  any  other  Chris- 


HIS  COURTESY 


igg 


tian  minister  by  trenching  on  his  territory.  He 
was  especially  careful  never  to  interfere  with  the 
work  of  the  Twelve.  He  never  became  their 
rivals,  or  in  any  way  showed  them  disrespect. 
His  high  sense  of  honor  and  delicacy  of  feeling 
would  not  permit  him  to  thrust  himself  into  a 
place  which  could  rightfully  be  claimed  by  an¬ 
other.  He  had  a  horror  of  getting  in  any  man’s 
way.  He  carefully  explains  his  policy  to  the 
Romans,  and  makes  it  clear  why  he  is  coming  to 
Rome.  Rome  is  not  his  destination.  That  City 
belongs  to  others.  He  is  going  to  Spain  because 
no  Christian  work  has  yet  been  done  there.  “My 
ambition,”  he  says,  “has  always  been  to  preach 
the  gospel  only  in  places  where  there  has  been  no 
mention  of  Christ’s  name,  that  I  might  not  build 
on  foundations  laid  by  others.  I  have  preached 
all  the  way  from  Jerusalem  around  to  Illyricum, 
and  now  as  I  have  no  further  scope  for  work  in 
these  parts,  I  am  going  to  Spain,  and  hope  to*  see 
you  on  my  way  there,  and  to  be  sped  forward  by 
you  after  I  have  enjoyed  your  company  for  a  sea¬ 
son.”  He  strove  to  keep  clear  of  even  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  infringing  on  the  sphere  of  other  workers. 

His  courtesy  led  some  to  misunderstand  him. 
They  mistook  his  gentleness  for  weakness.  They 
could  not  believe  that  a  real  Apostle  could  be  so 
considerate  and  deferential.  To  the  Corinthians 
he  writes :  “I  appeal  to  you  by  the  gentleness  and 
considerateness  of  Christ — the  Paul  who  is  hum- 


200 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


ble  enough  to  your  face  when  he  is  with  you,  and 
outspoken  enough  when  he  gets  away  from  you !” 
That  is  what  his  enemies  said.  It  is  not  easy  for 
a  boor  to  understand  the  conduct  of  a  gentleman. 

Paul  was  naturally  impulsive,  but  he  held  him¬ 
self  in.  He  was  by  nature  forceful,  but  he  re¬ 
strained  his  force.  He  had  a  high  sense  of  his 
mission,  but  he  never  forgot  his  manners.  He 
was  conscious  of  his  authority,  but  he  did  not  put 
on  airs.  He  was  a  gentleman  of  Christ’s  school, 
and  could  be  courteous  to  every  one  from  a  peas¬ 
ant  to  a  king.  His  considerateness  was  made 
known  to  all  men. 


XV 


HIS  INDIGNATION 


I 


XV 


HIS  INDIGNATION 

No  other  virtue  causes  us  such  perplexity  as 
the  virtue  of  indignation.  Sometimes  we  wonder 
if  it  be  a  virtue  at  all.  The  Greeks  and  Romans 
did  not  put  it  in  the  list  of  the  cardinal  virtues, 
nor  did  the  Christian  Fathers  enroll  it  among  the 
virtues  theological.  Paul  does  not  include  it 
among  the  fruits  of  the  spirit,  nor  is  it  to  be  found 
in  any  list  of  the  graces. 

If  we  decide  that  it  is  really  a  virtue,  we  find 
it  difficult  to  define  it.  It  passes  so  readily  into 
something  else.  It  can  become  rage  in  an  instant, 
and  the  rage  can  mount  at  once  to  fury,  and  fury 
we  know  is  wrong.  Or  it  can  sink  into  mere 
nervous  irritability,  a  feverish  condition  of  feeble 
exasperation.  It  is  hard  to  find  it  pure.  It  mixes 
itself  up  with  other  feelings,  the  feelings  of  bit¬ 
terness  and  hatred  and  revenge,  and  these  feel¬ 
ings  we  know  are  not  right.  Unalloyed  indigna¬ 
tion,  it  is  difficult  to  find. 

It  hardly  seems  a  virtue,  because  we  do  not 
have  to  struggle  to  attain  it.  It  is  born  in  us. 
Even  a  child  can  show  anger  without  instruction. 


203 


204 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


The  youngster  can  get  mad  more  readily  than  the 
man  whose  hairs  are  gray.  No  one  needs  to 
strive  in  order  to  possess  this  virtue.  It  seems 
to  be  part  of  our  constitutional  outfit,  an  element 
in  what  is  known  as  original  sin,  an  ingredient  of 
the  depravity  we  brought  with  us  into  the  world. 

And  yet  it  must  be  a  virtue  for  it  is  Godlike. 
God  is  not  a  stranger  to  the  feeling  of  indigna¬ 
tion.  We  know  this  because  Jesus  is  the  express 
image  of  God.  In  Jesus  we  come  to  know  what 
God  is.  The  mind  of  Jesus  is  the  mind  of  God, 
and  the  character  of  Jesus  is  the  character  of 
God.  Jesus  was  a  man  of  indignation.  His  eyes 
flashed,  his  words  burned.  There  were  men  in 
Jerusalem  who  never  forgot  the  glance  of  fiis 
angry  eyes.  The  men  who  were  the  nearest  to 
him  and  who  called  him  holy,  often  thought  of 
the  times  when  they  had  seen  him  angry.  They 
did  not  hesitate  10  tell  about  it  in  the  narratives 
written  for  the  instruction  of  all  believers. 

It  may  be  hard  to  define  just  what  we  mean, 
but  we  all  feel  sure  there  is  such  a  thing  as  right¬ 
eous  indignation.  We  may  not  be  sure  that  ours 
is  of  that  variety,  but  we  are  certain  that  in  the 
universe  such  a  feeling  has  a  rightful  place. 
When  a  just  man  looks  upon  an  act  of  injustice 
something  takes  fire  in  him,  and  that  fire  we  call 
indignation.  When  a  lover  of  honor  and  purity 
and  mercy  beholds  meanness  and  vileness  and 
cruelty,  a  certain  protesting  feeling  surges  up  in 


HIS  INDIGNATION 


205 


the  heart,  and  that  feeling  we  name  indignation. 
It  is  a  feeling  of  displeasure,  antagonism  and  con¬ 
demnation,  and  if  it  does  not  emerge  it  is  because 
the  heart  is  degenerate,  and  the  soul  has  lost  its 
highest  powers  of  feeling.  No  man  has  a  right 
to  consider  himself  normal,  who  can  stand  in  the 
presence  of  brutality  unmoved.  If  his  soul  does 
not  go  out  hot  and  strong  against  the  inhuman 
act,  it  is  because  he  has  ceased  to  live  in  the  higher 
ranges  of  his  being.  No  man  can  be  our  hero 
who  is  incapable  of  burning  with  anger.  The 
flabby  and  nerveless  souls  who  are  indifferent  to 
moral  distinctions,  and  who  remain  complacent 
in  the  presence  of  manifest  wrongs,  are  moral 
degenerates,  unworthy  of  a  place  among  men  of 
sound  fiber  and  full  statured  manhood. 

The  manhood  of  Paul  was  full-orbed.  He 
could  burn  like  a  furnace  in  the  presence  of  the 
vile  deeds  of  wicked  men.  Like  us  he  had  diffi¬ 
culty  sometimes  in  curbing  the  fire,  and  allowed 
it  to  burn  beyond  the  limits  prescribed.  There 
was  a  sentence  in  the  Jewish  Psalter  which  gave 
him  a  deal  of  comfort — “Be  ye  angry  and  sin 
not.”  He  often  pondered  it,  and  when  he  was  a 
prisoner  in  Rome,  he  quoted  it  in  a  letter  which 
he  wrote  to  his  friends  in  Ephesus.  He  knew 
what  an  excitable  people  they  were,  and  he  knew 
the  extent  of  the  vileness  and  villainy  which  the 
great  City  of  Ephesus  contained.  His  own  soul 
had  often  been  stirred  to  wrath  by  the  bad  men 


206 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


with  whom  he  had  contended  there,  and  he  re¬ 
membered  the  vexatious  persons  who  were  found 
even  inside  the  Ephesian  Church.  The  whole  en¬ 
vironment  was  provocative  of  bad  temper,  and 
he  reminds  them  of  the  exhortation  of  the  old 
Hebrew  poet — “Be  ye  angry  and  sin  not.”  There 
was  encouragement  in  those  words.  The  poet 
granted  one  the  privilege  of  being  angry,  and 
that  was  a  relief.  To  be  taught  that  under  no 
circumstances  has  a  man  the  right  to  be  angry, 
puts  the  soul  in  a  position  in  which  it  chafes  and 
rebels.  The  poet  felt  that  one  could  be  angry 
and  not  commit  sin,  but  he  knew  that  anger  read¬ 
ily  becomes  sinful,  and  so  he  adds,  “Sin  not.”  It 
is  a  note  of  warning,  and  Paul  strengthens  the 
warning  by  adding  a  word  of  advice.  “Never  let 
the  sun  set  upon  your  exasperation.  Don’t  give 
the  devil  a  chance.”  He  had  found  out  from  his 
own  experience  that  when  the  fire  of  anger  burns 
too  fiercely  or  too  long,  other  sins  are  not  far 
away.  When  one  sinks  into  a  state  of  chronic 
exasperation,  he  gives  the  spirit  of  evil  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  to  work  its  will.  In  the  list  of  things 
which  he  urges  the  Ephesians  to  drop,  he  gives 
the  foremost  place  to  bitter  feeling  and  passion 
and  anger.  Having  been  often  tempted  himself, 
he  knew  how  to  write  to  those  who  also  were 
tempted. 

When  he  instructed  Titus  concerning  the  prime 
qualifications  of  a  Bishop,  he  wrote:  “He  must 


HIS  INDIGNATION 


207 


not  be  presumptuous  or  hot-tempered.”  Paul 
knew  that  a  man  responsible  for  the  spiritual 
growth  of  congregations  must  not  become  angry 
easily.  If  he  does,  he  is  likely  to  be  angry  most 
of  the  time.  Something  is  always  going  wrong, 
somebody  is  always  trying  his  patience,  new  exhi¬ 
bitions  of  pettiness  and  meanness  and  hypocrisy 
are  constantly  coming  into  view,  and  while  a  relig¬ 
ious  leader  must  have  a  heart  capable  of  flam¬ 
ing,  he  must  not  allow  the  flame  to  burn  him  up. 
We  get  light  on  Paul’s  interior  life  by  the  advice 
which  he  gave  to  others. 

One  of  the  most  dramatic  episodes  in  Paul’s 
whole  career,  was  his  outburst  of  anger  before 
the  Council  in  Jerusalem.  It  occurred  at  the  very 
beginning  of  his  trial.  He  had  begun  his  testi¬ 
mony  by  saying  that  he  had  lived  with  a  perfectly 
good  conscience  before  God  down  to  the  present 
day.  That  was  too  much  for  the  High  Priest. 
In  a  paroxysm  of  fury,  he  ordered  some  one 
standing  next  to  Paul  to  strike  him  on  the  mouth. 
The  order  was  a  dastardly  one,  and  it  set  Paul 
ablaze.  That  a  prisoner  should  be  slapped  in  the 
face  in  a  Court  of  Justice  by  the  order  of  one  of 
his  judges,  was  an  atrocity  which  filled  Paul  with 
rage.  The  heat  of  the  fire  is  a  revelation  of  the 
man.  We  should  never  have  known  Paul  so  well 
had  it  not  been  for  that  outbreak  of  passion. 
That  was  a  flash  of  lightning  in  the  glare  of 
which  his  soul  stands  out  sharply  featured.  In 


208 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  the  thunderbolt  was 
launched — “God  shall  smite  you,  you  whited 
wall!  You  sit  there  to  judge  me  by  the  law,  do 
you?  And  you  break  the  law  by  ordering  me  to 
be  struck!”  The  words  sent  a  thrill  of  horror 
through  every  one  present.  No  Jew  for  genera¬ 
tions  had  ever  dared  to  talk  to  a  High  Priest  like 
that.  Only  in  anger  can  a  man  heat  his  words  so 
hot.  It  was  the  injustice  of  the  act  which  stung 
Paul  to  madness.  What  a  disgrace  to  suffer  a 
ruffian  to  act  as  a  Judge.  What  a  shame  to, the 
nation  if  such  an  outrage  were  not  rebuked.  Paul 
immediately  apologized  for  his  words,  but  he 
could  not  take  them  back.  What  he  had  spoken 
he  had  spoken,  and  to  the  end  of  time  men  will 
read  them,  and  in  reading  them  will  feel  the  heat 
of  a  man  who  although  an  Apostle  of  Jesus 
Christ  was  capable  of  fiery  indignation. 

It  was  not  the  personal  insult  which  Paul  most 
resented.  The  physical  sting  of  a  slap  on  the 
mouth  will  not  account  for  his  anger.  Some  men 
become  angry  only  over  wrongs  to  themselves. 
It  is  when  their  own  rights  are  trampled  on, 
that  they  cry  out  in  fierce  protestation.  But 
wrongs  suffered  by  others  could  set  Paul  imme¬ 
diately  on  fire.  He  looked  after  his  converts 
with  the  solicitude  of  a  mother.  Any  one  who 
hurt  them  hurt  him.  He  had  the  same  feeling 
for  his  converts  which  Jesus  had  for  his  disciples. 
Men  could  never  forget  the  white  heat  of  the 


HIS  INDIGNATION 


209 


words,  “Whoso  shall  cause  one  of  these  little 
ones  who  believe  on  me  to  stumble,  it  is  profit¬ 
able  for  him  that  a  great  millstone  should  be 
hanged  about  his  neck  and  that  he  should  be  sunk 
in  the  depths  of  the  sea.”  With  a  similar  love, 
Paul  followed  his  converts.  When  he  tells  the 
Corinthians  of  the  burdens  he  carries  on  his  heart, 
he  mentions  the  wrongs  done  to  his  converts. 
“Which  of  them”- — he  says — “is  caused  to  stum¬ 
ble  and  I  do  not  burn  with  indignation.”  His 
enemies  were  always  trying  to  steal  them  away, 
always  working  to  break  down  their  faith,  always 
scheming  to  entice  them  into  sin,  and  his  great 
soul  glowed  with  anger.  When  the  high  ones  of 
the  earth  ordered  his  converts  to  be  struck  on  the 
mouth,  he  was  as  swift  in  resentment  as  though 
his  own  mouth  had  been  smitten. 

He  was  moved  to  wrath  by  the  men  who  per¬ 
verted  the  meaning  of  the  Christian  message. 
They  emptied  the  Gospel  of  its  divine  content. 
They  hounded  him  from  city  to  city,  telling  lies. 
They  were  like  bloodhounds,  and  could  not  be 
thrown  off  the  scent.  The  meanness  of  their 
slanders,  and  the  despicable  methods  they  made 
use  of  to  blacken  his  name,  raised  his  wrath  to 
such  a  pitch  that  he  sometimes  used  language 
which  is  harsh  and  almost  coarse.  “Beware  of 
these  dogs,”  he  wrote  to  the  Philippians.  He 
was  at  that  time  a  prisoner  in  Rome,  but  in  his 
solitude  he  could  hear  the  yelping  of  the  dogs 


210 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


All  over  Asia  Minor,  they  were  barking  and  their 
teeth  were  sharp  and  their  jaws  were  hungry. 
Dogs  in  the  orient  did  not  enjoy  the  reputation 
and  the  privileges  of  dogs  in  Christian  lands  to¬ 
day,  and  when  one  man  called  another  man  a  dog, 
he  used  a  word  which  men  in  ordinary  moods 
were  slow  to  take  upon  their  lips.  It  was  gen¬ 
erally  in  anger  that  men  called  one  another  dogs. 

The  hottest  of  all  Paul’s  letters  is  his  letter  to 
the  Galatians.  Luther  was  right  when  he  said 
that  Paul’s  words  in  this  letter  are  fierce  flame 
and  that  he  begins,  so  to  speak,  by  cursing  the 
angels.  He  curses  everybody  who  does  not  ac¬ 
cept  his  interpretation  of  the  Gospel.  The  Juda- 
izers  have  by  their  misrepresentations  upset  the 
faith  of  some  of  his  Galatian  converts,  and  his 
soul  is  aroused.  He  writes  with  fever  heat.  His 
language  flows  like  a  torrent.  The  whole  letter 
is  like  a  thunderstorm.  He  scolds,  he  pleads,  he 
denounces,  he  exhorts,  he  argues,  he  asserts  dog¬ 
matically,  all  in  a  whirlwind  of  emotion.  “O 
senseless  Galatians,  who  has  bewitched  you?  I 
simply  want  to  ask  you  one  thing,  did  you  receive 
the  Spirit  by  doing  what  the  Law  commands,  or 
by  believing  the  Gospel  message?  Are  you  such 
fools?  He  who  unsettles  you  will  have  to  meet 
his  doom,  no  matter  who  he  is!”  From  the  first 
sentence — “Paul  an  Apostle,  not  of  men,  neither 
by  men,  but  by  Jesus  Christ  and  God  the  Father,” 
down  to  the  last  sentence,  “Henceforth,  let  no 


HIS  INDIGNATION 


21 1 


man  trouble  me,”  one  feels  he  is  reading  the  words 
of  a  man  so  mad  that  he  can  scarcely  keep  his 
language  from  exploding. 

One  finds  something  of  this  same  spirit  of  in¬ 
dignation  in  his  second  letter  to  the  Corinthians. 
There  it  finds  vent  in  irony  and  sarcasm.  Paul  is 
stung  by  the  criticisms  and  slanders  of  his  Co¬ 
rinthian  opponents,  and  he  sweeps  them  aside  with 
gestures  of  scorn.  The  unjustness  of  the  things 
they  are  saying  stirs  him  to  wrath. 

Of  all  the  adversaries  who  excited  Paul’s  an¬ 
ger,  Elymas  probably  deserves  the  foremost  place. 
Elymas  was  an  astrologer  who  lived  in  Paphos 
on  the  island  of  Cyprus.  Although  he  was  a 
Jew,  he  was  in  the  retinue  of  the  Roman  Pro- 
consul  there.  In  those  days  it  was  believed  that 
the  stars  have  much  to  do  with  the  lives  of  men, 
and  that  human  destiny  can  be  read  in  the  con¬ 
stellations.  Such  a  belief  gave  the  charlatans  a 
chance.  They  went  everywhere  claiming  to  pos¬ 
sess  knowledge  which  they  sold  at  high  prices. 
Human  nature  loves  to  be  gulled,  and  therefore 
in  every  generation  the  number  of  impostors  is 
legion.  When  Barnabas  and  Paul  came  to 
Paphos,  they  were  invited  to  state  their  new  doc¬ 
trines  in  the  house  of  the  Proconsul,  and  Elymas 
of  course  was  present.  He  interrupted  the  Chris¬ 
tian  preachers  and  scoffed  at  them,  doing  his  ut¬ 
most  to  keep  the  Proconsul  from  accepting  the 
new  faith.  Paul  could  not  long  put  up  with  his 


212 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


insolent  interruptions.  He  could  bear  the  oppo¬ 
sition  of  honest  men  with  compassionate  pati¬ 
ence,  but  he  could  not  be  patient  with  an  arrogant 
rogue.  Elymas  was  probably  the  first  man  of 
this  stripe  whom  Paul  had  yet  encountered.  He 
and  Barnabas  were  just  starting  on  their  first 
missionary  journey,  and  at  the  very  threshold 
they  are  confronted  by  this  impudent  impostor. 
How  Barnabas  felt  we  are  not  told,  but  the  soul 
of  Paul  waxed  hot.  He  came  down  upon  the 
voluble  cheat  without  mercy.  In  glowing  indig¬ 
nation,  he  fastens  his  flashing  eyes  on  the  cul¬ 
prit  and  tells  him  plainly  what  he  is.  Anger 
often  gives  fresh  power  to  the  tongue,  and  Paul 
was  never  more  successful  than  on  this  occasion 
in  using  language  highly  expressive.  “You  mass 
of  trickery  and  rascality,”  that  is  the  way  Paul 
begins,  and  he  follows  it  up  with  another  shot — 
“You  son  of  the  Devil,”  and  not  content  with 
that  he  hastens  to  add — “You  enemy  of  every¬ 
thing  that  is  right,  will  you  never  stop  diverting 
the  straight  paths  of  the  Lord?”  And  then  in  a 
solemn  tone,  Paul  announces  to  the  discomfited 
wretch,  that  he  is  going  to  be  blind  for  a  season. 
The  very  statement  seemed  to  put  a  mist  over 
the  rogue’s  eyes.  Realizing  that  he  had  never  had 
to  deal  with  a  man  like  Paul  before,  he  begins  to 
grope  about  for  some  one  to  take  him  by  the 
hand.  Paul  abhorred  sorcerers  and  wizards,  as- 


HIS  INDIGNATION 


2i3 


trologers  and  fortune  tellers,  quacks  of  every 
kind.  The  world  of  Paul’s  day  swarmed  with 
conjurors  and  tricksters,  knaves  and  pretenders, 
scamps  of  every  description  who  played  on  the 
credulity  of  the  ignorant  and  superstitious  peo¬ 
ple.  Elymas  was  the  distinguished  representative 
of  a  large  class.  It  was  necessary  that  he  be  dealt 
with  severely,  that  his  punishment  might  be  a 
warning  to  all  cheats  everywhere.  A  professing 
Christian  had  once  fallen  dead  in  church  in  Jeru¬ 
salem  at  the  feet  of  Peter  who  accused  him  of 
lying,  and  now  a  liar  outside  the  church  loses  for 
a  season  the  use  of  his  eyes.  In  a  universe  like 
this,  built  upon  truth,  in  which  everything  de¬ 
pends  on  men’s  willingness  to  believe  and  speak 
the  truth,  what  a  monster  a  man  is  who  earns  his 
living  by  making  and  selling  lies.  It  is  the  lover 
of  truth  whose  soul  rises  in  fierce  and  implacable 
antagonism  to  men  who  deceive.  If  we  are  not 
so  hot  as  Paul,  it  is  because  we  are  not  so  noble 
as  he. 

Whether  the  sun  ever  set  on  Paul’s  anger,  we 
do  not  know,  but  we  are  sure  it  never  degener¬ 
ated  into  chronic  vexation  or  personal  spite.  It 
never  became  that  ugly  thing  which  we  call  re¬ 
venge.  It  was  the  scorching  protest  to  falsehood 
and  wrong  of  a  soul  in  passionate  love  with  the 
truth.  He  told  Timothy  that  the  hands  which 
men  hold  up  in  prayer,  must  be  free  from  anger 


214  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

f 

and  dissension,  and  he  spoke  to  the  whole  world 
when  he  wrote  to  the  Romans:  “Never  revenge 
yourselves,  beloved,  but  let  the  wrath  of  God 
have  its  way.” 


XVI 


HIS  TENDERNESS 


XVI 


HIS  TENDERNESS 

The  severity  of  Paul  has  given  offence  to 
many.  But  his  severity,  strange  to  say,  was  due 
to  his  tenderness.  If  he  had  not  been  so  gentle 
and  affectionate,  he  would  not  have  been  so  stern. 
There  is  nothing  so  austere  and  relentless  as  in¬ 
dignant  love. 

Whether  Paul  was  tender-hearted  in  his  pre- 
Christian  days,  we  do  not  know.  All  we  know 
about  him  in  those  days  is  that  he  was  a  per¬ 
secutor  of  those  who  believed  in  Jesus,  and  a  per¬ 
secutor  engaged  in  the  extermination  of  what  he 
thinks  is  a  pestiferous  heresy  can  never  be  soft 
and  gentle.  As  a  persecutor,  Paul,  like  all  perse¬ 
cutors,  was  harsh  and  cruel.  He  seemed  to  be 
devoid  of  pity.  When  men  were  whipped  and 
put  to  death,  he  apparently  felt  no  compunction. 
So  far  as  we  know,  he  was  untouched  by  the 
death  of  Stephen.  Neither  the  face  nor  the 
prayer  of  that  dving  man  moved  him.  He 
plunged  forthwith  into  the  work  which  the  mur¬ 
derers  of  Stephen  had  begun.  But  the  face  and 
prayer  of  Stephen  no  doubt  left  a  mark  on  him. 

217 


2l8 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


He  could  not  forget  them.  They  lived  with  him. 
Years  afterward,  he  told  Luke  all  about  them. 
When  Luke  says  that  those  who  sat  in  the  Coun¬ 
cil  saw  Stephen’s  face  “as  it  had  been  the  face  of 
an  angel,”  he  is  no  doubt  quoting  the  language  of 
Paul.  Stephen’s  face  shone  as  he  faced  his  ac¬ 
cusers,  and  Paul  never  forgot  what  a  beautiful 
face  it  was.  It  did  not  soften  him,  but  it  haunted 
him.  Nor  did  he  ever  forget  Stephen’s  dying 
prayer,  or  the  long  address  which  preceded  it. 
That  address  is  the  most  complete  discourse  re¬ 
ported  in  the  Book  of  the  Acts,  and  the  com¬ 
pleteness  is  due,  probably,  to  the  retentive  mem¬ 
ory  of  Paul.  He  listened  to  it  with  both  ears, 
and  it  never  faded  from  his  mind.  The  prayer 
which  Stephen  offered  just  before  his  eyes  closed 
in  death,  lived  in  Paul’s  memory  forever  after¬ 
ward.  “Lord  Jesus  receive  my  spirit.  Lord,  lay 
not  this  sin  to  their  charge.”  How  could  he  ever 
forget  that  prayer?  Those  words  did  not  move 
Paul  at  the  time;  they  sank  into  his  mind  there 
to  remain  forever. 

It  was  not  the  face  or  the  voice  of  Stephen 
which  softened  Paul’s  heart,  but  the  face  and 
voice  of  Jesus.  It  was  the  sweetness  of  Jesus’ 
face  and  the  tenderness  of  his  voice  which  took 
away  Paul’s  heart  of  stone  and  gave  him  a  heart 
of  flesh.  From  the  hour  in  which  he  met  Jesus 
near  the  Damascus  gate,  Paul  was  the  incarna¬ 
tion  of  tenderness.  The  secret  of  the  change 


HIS  TENDERNESS 


219 


comes  out  in  the  sweetest  of  all  Paul’s  exhorta¬ 
tions  :  “Be  ye  kind  to  one  another,  tender-hearted, 
forgiving  one  another,  even  as  God  for  Christ’s 
sake  has  forgiven  you.” 

In  his  treatment  of  his  co-workers,  Paul  was 
generous  and  warm-hearted.  He  was  especially 
fond  of  Timothy.  He  called  Timothy  his  son, 
his  child,  his  boy,  his  dear  boy.  “You  know,” 
he  wrote  to  the  Philippians,  “how  he  stood  the 
test,  how  he  has  served  with  me  in  the  Gospel, 
like  a  son  helping  his  father.”  Paul  was  proud  of 
him  and  solicitous  about  him.  He  was  always 
afraid  that  some  one  would  hurt  his  sensitive 
and  shrinking  heart.  He  urges  the  Corinthians 
to  be  good  to  him,  to  make  him  feel  at  home,  and 
not  to  allow  any  one  to  disparage  him,  because  he 
is  engaged  in  the  very  same  work  in  which  Paul 
himself  is  engaged.  “When  he  leaves  you,  speed 
him  cordially  on  his  way,  for  I  shall  be  looking 
for  him” — thus  writes  the  affectionate  Apostle. 
He  tried  to  guard  Timothy  from  being  imposed 
upon,  not  only  by  exhortations  to  others  but  by 
advice  to  Timothy  himself.  “Hold  up  your  head, 
my  boy,  and  do  not  let  others  slight  you  just  be¬ 
cause  you  are  young.”  Timothy’s  health  was 
frail,  and  this  also  made  Paul  anxious.  In  one 
of  his  letters,  he  suggests  a  remedy  which  he 
hopes  Timothy  will  try.  We  may  not  think  highly 
of  the  remedy,  but  we  are  bound  to  think  highly 
of  the  heart  which  suggested  it.  It  was  the  best 


220 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


and  only  remedy  which  Paul  knew,  and  if  a  man 
offers  his  best,  what  more  is  possible  ? 

Sickness  among  his  friends  weighed  upon 
Paul’s  heart.  In  one  of  his  letters  he  tells  how 
anxious  he  was  once  about  Epaphroditus.  Epa- 
phroditus  was  very  ill.  Every  one  thought  he 
was  going  to  die.  The  Philippians  heard  of  this, 
and  it  made  them  anxious,  and  when  Epaphrodi¬ 
tus  grew  better,  he  became  anxious  because  his 
friends  in  Philippi  were  worrying  about  him,  and 
he  yearned  to  get  home  as  quickly  as  possible. 
Paul  had  been  solicitous  both  for  the  man  and  his 
friends.  He  felt  that  Epaphroditus’  recovery  was 
providential.  To  use  Paul’s  own  language — 
“God  had  mercy  on  him  and  on  me  that  I  might 
not  have  one  sorrow  upon  another.  I  am  espe¬ 
cially  eager  to  send  him,  that  you  may  be  glad 
when  you  see  him  again,  and  thus  my  own 
anxiety  be  lightened.”  And  thus  do  we  get  a 
deep  glimpse  into  the  heart  life  of  Paul  and  his 
friends. 

Paul  had  not  power  to  heal  the  physical  mal¬ 
adies  of  himself  or  of  those  who  were  dear  to 
him.  He  did  not  know  what  others  think  they 
have  discovered,  that  such  a  power  is  an  indispen¬ 
sable  part  of  the  equipment  of  a  minister  of  Jesus 
Christ.  He  recognized  sickness  as  an  obvious  and 
stubborn  fact  of  human  experience,  and  he  made 
no  effort  to  explain  it  away,  or  to  camouflage  its 
existence  by  inventing  a  set  of  novel  and  fan- 


HIS  TENDERNESS 


221 


tastic  terms.  He  would  never  allow  plain  and 
undeniable  facts  to  be  shoved  aside  by  fine  thej 
ories  which  can  only  confuse  and  deceive.  When 
his  body  was  sick,  he  was  not  ashamed  to  say  so, 
nor  was  he  ashamed  to  say  that  he  could  not  cure 
it  by  prayer.  He  was  sure  that  God  was  friendly 
to  him,  and  was  willing  to  do  for  him  everything 
which  could  wisely  be  done,  and  when,  therefore, 
God  refused  to  answer  his  prayers  for  bodily 
healing,  he  accepted  the  answer  without  complain¬ 
ing.  He  was  not  a  whit  behind  the  greatest  of 
the  Apostles,  but  he  could  not  cure  either  him¬ 
self  or  his  friends.  Like  other  men,  he  had  to 
submit  to  the  inevitable,  and  physical  illness  was 
one  of  the  burdens  which  he  submissively  bore. 
One  can  almost  hear  the  sigh  of  his  heart  in  the 
words  he  wrote  to  Timothy  in  his  last  letter.  “I 
left  Trophimus  ill  at  Miletus.”  He  wanted  him 
to  come  with  him,  but  the  poor  man  was  too  sick 
to  come.  He  needed  him  in  Rome,  but  a  sick 
man  can  render  no  help.  He  had  counted  on  his 
companionship  and  assistance,  only  to  be  disap¬ 
pointed.  Paul  had  to  go  on  without  him,  and 
thus  was  there  added  another  anxiety  to  his  al¬ 
ready  overburdened  heart. 

How  tenderly  he  speaks  of  Mark,  the  John 
Mark,  the  son  of  the  sister  of  Barnabas,  who 
once  on  a  critical  occasion  had  played  the  cow¬ 
ard,  and  compelled  Paul  to  feel  that  he  could  not 
be  trusted  in  the  doing  of  a  difficult  and  danger- 


222 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


ous  piece  of  work.  That  was  when  Mark  was 
young,  and  in  later  years  Mark  had  washed  out 
his  early  disgrace.  He  had  proved  by  faithful 
service  that  he  was  a  man  to  be  trusted,  and  so 
Paul  gave  him  his  confidence  again.  “Give  Mark 
a  welcome,”  Paul  writes  to  the  Coloss-ians.  He 
was  afraid  that  the  memories  of  the  earlier  days 
might  be  lingering  in  the  air,  and  that  the  Colos- 
sians  might  turn  to  Mark  a  cold  shoulder.  “Don’t 
do  it,”  writes  the  Apostle;  “give  him  a  welcome, 
he  is  a  man  worthy  of  your  trust  and  affection.” 
In  his  last  letter  to  Timothy,  he  says — “Pick  up 
Mark  and  bring  h-im  along  with  you.”  Mark  had 
once  hindered  Paul,  but  now  he  can  help  him. 
Once  he  was  a  handicap,  but  now  he  can  be  of 
great  service.  “Bring  Mark  along  with  you” — 
the  words  remind  one  of  the  words  of  Jesus  to 
the  women — “Go  tell  my  disciples,  and  Peter.” 
Peter,  the  man  who  had  sinned  and  brought  dis¬ 
grace  on  himself  and  weakness  to  the  cause,  that 
is  the  man  to  whom  the  women  are  sent.  They 
are  to  carry  the  glad  mesage  to  all  of  the  Twelve, 
and  especially  to  the  man  who  is  so  overwhelmed 
with  remorse,  that  he  does  not  expect  any  mes¬ 
sage  at  all.  “Go  tell  Peter!”  And  so  now  does 
Paul  say  to  his  son  Timothy — “Come  to  me  as 
soon  as  you  can,  and  bring  Mark  along  with 
you.”  If  Paul  was  too  harsh  with  the  young  man 
when  he  stumbled  and  fell,  the  compassionate 
heart  of  the  aged  Apostle  now  opens  wide  and 


HIS  TENDERNESS 


223 


takes  him  in.  Paul  knew  how  to  forgive  and 
forget. 

Paul  loved  his  converts  with  a  tender  affec¬ 
tion.  He  called  them — “My  beloved,”  “My  dearly 
beloved,”  which  in  our  language  means  “My 
dears.”  They  were  all  dear  to  him.  Even  in  the 
severest  of  his  letters — the  letter  to  the  Galatians 
he  exclaims :  “O,  my  dear  children  with  whom  I 
am  in  travail  over  again  till  Christ  be  formed 
within  you,  would  that  I  could  be  with  you  at  this 
moment !” 

To  hurt  any  of  his  converts  gave  him  deep 
pain.  Sometimes  it  was  necessary  for  him  to  say 
severe  things,  but  these  sharp  words  hurt  him 
more  than  the  people  to  whom  they  were  writ¬ 
ten.  He  wrote  an  austere  letter  one  day  to  the 
Church  in  Corinth,  and  later  on  he  said  this :  “I 
wrote  to  you  in  sore  distress  and  anguish  of  heart 
with  many  tears,  not  to  pain  you  but  to  convince 
you  of  my  love,  my  special  love  for  you.”  Later 
on  he  refers  to  that  letter  again:  “If  I  did  pain 
you  by  that  letter,  I  do  not  regret  it.  I  did  regret 
it  when  I  found  that  my  letter  had  pained  you 
even  for  the  time  being,  but  I  am  glad  now — not 
glad  that  you  were  pained,  but  glad  that  your  pain 
induced  you  to  repent.” 

The  tears  of  Paul  are  a  medium  of  revelation. 
They  must  be  considered  along  with  his  words. 
They  may  not  teach  doctrine,  but  they  reveal  per¬ 
sonality.  They  may  not  assist  in  working  out  a 


224 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


dogma,  but  they  carry  us  deep  into  the  heart  of 
an  Apostle,  into  the  heart  of  the  Eternal.  Tears 
are  indeed  words — words  of  the  heart.  They 
speak  to  all  who  have  ears  to  hear.  It  is  through 
his  tears  that  we  come  to  know  Paul’s  innermost 
soul.  The  thought  of  hurting  people  made  him 
weep.  The  man  who  once  condemned  men  to 
death  without  wincing,  is  now  so  sensitive  that 
the  act  of  giving  even  a  momentary  pain  draws 
tears  from  his  eyes.  He  sees  so  clearly  the  dire 
results  of  wrong  living,  and  is  so  eager  to  save 
men,  that  when  he  exhorts  them,  and  they  refuse 
to  heed  his  exhortation,  he  cannot  hold  back  the 
tears.  To  the  Ephesian  elders,  he  said,  “Do  not 
forget  that  for  three  whole  years  I  did  not  cease 
to  admonish  every  one  night  and  day  with  tears.” 

Paul  and  Peter  are  the  only  two  Apostles,  of 
whom  it  is  written  that  they  wept.  Peter  wept 
over  his  own  sins.  Paul  wept  over  the  sins  of 
others.  His  tears  are  like  unto  the  tears  of  the 
Son  of  God.  As  Jesus  wept  over  Jerusalem,  so 
did  Paul  weep  over  the  cities  in  which  he 
preached. 

It  was  not  his  converts  only  whom  Paul  car¬ 
ried  on  his  heart.  His  solicitude  went  out  to  all 
men,  no  matter  how  rebellious  and  wicked.  In 
the  solitude  of  his  Roman  confinement,  he  often 
thinks  of  the  men  who  are  going  to  perdition,  and 
as  he  thinks  of  them,  tears  rain  down  his  cheeks. 
He  cannot  write  a  letter  without  crying.  To  the 


HIS  TENDERNESS 


225 


Philippians,  he  says — “Many,  as  I  have  often  told 
you  and  tell  you  now  with  tears,  many  live  as 
enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ.  Destruction  is 
their  fate,  the  belly  is  their  god,  they  glory  in 
their  shame — these  men  of  earthly  minds!” 

The  Jewish  race  was  dear  to  his  heart.  The 
venomous  opposition  of  individual  Jews  never 
hardened  it.  The  suffering  of  cruel  persecution 
through  many  years  never  soured  the  milk  of 
human  kindness  in  him.  To  the  Romans  he 
wrote:  “I  tell  you  God’s  truth,  when  I  say  that 
I  have  great  sorrow  and  increasing  pain  in  my 
heart.  I  could  wish  myself  accursed  and  ban¬ 
ished  from  Christ  for  the  sake  of  my  brothers, 
my  natural  kinsmen,  for  they  are  Israelites,  theirs 
is  the  Sonship,  the  glory,  the  covenants,  the  divine 
legislation,  the  worship  and  the  promises :  the 
patriarchs  are  theirs,  and  theirs  too  (so  far  as 
natural  descent  goes)  is  the  Christ.”  Close  con¬ 
tact  with  the  harsh  world  often  makes  the  heart 
hard.  Misunderstanding  and  ingratitude  when 
long  continued  have  a  tendency  to  dry  up  the 
springs  of  the  soul.  Some  men  are  turned  to 
flint  by  suffering.  It  was  not  so  with  Paul.  Tears 
are  often  in  his  eyes,  because  there  is  a  divine 
tenderness  in  his  heart. 

His  patient  kindness  in  dealing  with  his 
churches  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  phenomena 
which  the  New  Testament  has  to  show.  He 
looked  upon  his  converts  as  his  children.  All  of 


226 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


them  belonged  to  him.  Timothy  was  his  son,  and 
so  also  was  Titus,  and  so  also  was  the  poor  slave 
Onesimus.  All  the  men  were  his  brothers  and  all 
the  women  were  his  sisters,  and  he,  because  of  his 
age  and  spiritual  knowledge,  was  a  father  to  them 
all.  “We  treated  each  of  you  as  a  father  treats  his 
children” — so  he  writes  to  the  Thessalonians — 
“beseeching  you,  encouraging  you,  and  charging 
you  to  lead  a  life  worthy  of  the  God  who  called 
you  to  his  kingdom  and  glory.”  He  was  even 
more  than  a  father.  He  was  a  mother,  too.  “We 
behaved  gently  when  we  were  among  you” — he 
says- — “like  a  nursing  mother  cherishing  her  own 
children,  fain,  in  our  yearning  affection  for  you, 
to  impart  not  only  the  Gospel  of  God  to  you,  but 
our  very  souls  as  well,  you  had  so  won  our  love.” 
No  matter  how  obstreperous  and  exasperating  his 
converts  were,  he  meekly  continued  his  work.  He 
makes  his  thoughts  comprehensible  to  pagan 
minds,  he  makes  his  doctrines  credible  to  Jewish 
minds,  he  softens  the  prejudices  of  the  bigoted, 
and  shows  the  emptiness  of  popular  superstitions, 
he  allays  unreasonable  fears,  and  inspires  flag¬ 
ging  hopes,  he  respects  foolish  scruples,  and  ad¬ 
ministers  strength  to  the  faint-hearted,  he  tones 
down  the  conceited,  and  holds  in  check  the  auto¬ 
cratic,  and  works  day  and  night  to  rescue  those 
who  because  of  their  ancestry  and  inherited  dis¬ 
positions  and  habits,  keep  slipping  back  into  the 
sins  of  the  world  around  them.  His  converts  are 


HIS  TENDERNESS 


227 


indeed  nothing  but  children,  and  he,  like  a  patient 
father,  teaches  them  to  think  and  tells  them  how 
they  ought  to  feel,  and  trains  them  in  the  right 
ways  of  acting.  He  expounds  to  them  the  fine 
art  of  living  together,  and  of  working  together 
for  the  attainment  of  high  ends,  and  he  does  it 
all  with  a  gentleness  and  tenderness  which  remind 
us  of  the  patience  and  delicacy  of  Christ. 

His  conscience  was  as  sensitive  as  his  heart  was 
tender.  The  work  which  he  did  as  a  persecutor 
did  not  trouble  him  at  the  time.  It  troubled  him 
later  on.  When  we  hear  him  call  himself  the 
“chief  of  sinners,”  his  language  sounds  exag¬ 
gerated  and  absurd.  We  wonder  at  first  how  he 
could  make  use  of  language  so  wild,  but  when  we 
see  the  stream  of  thought  from  which  this  con¬ 
fession  emerges,  we  understand  why  he  feels  as 
he  does.  He  has  been  brooding  over  the  old 
days  when  he  was  a  blasphemer  and  a  persecutor. 
The  hideous  past  comes  back  again.  He  sees  the 
backs  of  the  men  who  were  whipped.  He  sees 
the  pleading  eyes  of  the  men  thrust  into  prison. 
He  hears  again  the  words  of  quivering  lips  which 
he  had  compelled  to  blaspheme  the  name  of  Jesus. 
He  sees  the  pallid,  hopeless  faces  of  those  who 
were  led  out  to  death,  and  when  that  company 
of  men  and  women  whom  he  has  wronged  stand 
round  about  him,  he  falls  upon  his  face,  de¬ 
claring  that  he  is  the  “chief  of  sinners.”  His 
conscience  has  grown  sensitive  with  the  years, 


228 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


and  he  is  now  reverent  in  the  presence  of  the 
consciences  of  other  men.  The  conscience  is 
too  sacred  for  any  man  to  interfere  with  the 
conscience  of  any  other  man.  Every  man  an¬ 
swers  to  God  and  to  God  alone  for  what  he 
thinks  and  feels  and  does.  Only  God  is  com¬ 
petent  to  deal  with  anything  so  divine  as  con¬ 
science.  When  we  see  the  Apostle  moving  about 
among  the  consciences  of  his  converts  with  rev- 
rent  step  and  careful  touch,  we  are  reminded  of 
the  gracious  gentleness  of  one  of  whom  it  was 
written  that  “a  bruised  reed  he  would  not  break, 
and  that  a  smoking  wick  he  would  not  quench.” 
The  vision  of  the  gentle-hearted  Jesus  had  made 
the  heart  of  Paul  tender,  and  when  he  makes  an 
inventory  of  the  harvest  of  the  spirit,  we  find  that 
he  has  written  among  other  things,  “love  and 
kindliness  and  gentleness  and  self-control,” 


XVII 

HIS  BREADTH  AND  NARROWNESS 


XVII 


HIS  BREADTH  AND  NARROWNESS 

On  a  hasty  view,  one  would  say  that  Paul  lived 
a  narrow  life.  He  claimed  that  all  things  belong 
to  us,  but  he  never  availed  himself  of  many  of 
them.  There  is  no  evidence  that  he  took  the 
slightest  interest  in  art.  His  eyes,  so  far  as  we 
are  able  to  judge,  did  not  revel  in  statuary  or 
architecture.  He  apparently  took  no  delight  in 
music  or  painting.  He  was,  so  far  as  we  know, 
indifferent  to  the  masterpieces  of  Greek  genius. 
He  probably  felt  no  interest  in  science.  Scien¬ 
tific  investigation  did  not  appeal  to  him.  It  is 
safe  to  assume  he  was  not  a  student  of  astronomy 
or  botany,  of  natural  history  or  physiology.  The 
processes  of  the  world  of  nature  did  not  quicken 
his  curiosity  or  occupy  his  mind.  He  cared  little 
for  philosophy,  and  at  times  spoke  slightingly  of 
it,  or  at  least,  of  those  forms  of  it  which  came 
under  his  notice.  We  have  no  proof  that  he  ever 
gave  any  thought  to  business,  or  to  the  anxieties 
and  perplexities  of  business  men.  In  none  of  his 
letters  does  he  seem  to  be  conscious  of  the  exist- 


231 


232  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

ence  of  the  business  world.  Nor  is  he  interested 
in  politics.  The  whole  realm  of  civil  government 
lies  beyond  his  concern.  Rulers  and  statesmen 
and  diplomats  move  in  a  world  into  which  he 
scarcely  looks.  He  was  not  fond  of  sport.  He 
knew,  of  course,  that  in  every  Greek  city,  there 
were  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  foot  races 
and  boxing  contests,  but  we  cannot  imagine  him 
being  interested  in  these  Greek  games.  That 
whole  world  was  to  him  only  a  fading  wreath. 
He  was  not  greatly  interested  even  in  family  life. 
Fie  had  to  take  notice  of  the  domestic  perplexities 
in  other  men’s  homes,  but  he  did  not  want  a  home 
of  his  own.  He  was  a  bachelor  or  a  widower, 
and  he  did  not  envy  the  lot  of  any  married  man. 

He  was  wrapped  up  in  just  one  thing — the 
Church.  In  it  he  lived  and  moved  and  had  his 
being.  Everything  else  was  subsidiary  and  com¬ 
paratively  insignificant.  It  was  only  to  one  branch 
of  Church  work  that  he  gave  his  whole  heart, 
the  work  of  preaching.  He  was  a  preacher  and 
nothing  more.  The  sacramental  side  of  religion 
did  not  stir  his  enthusiasm.  The  religions  of  the 
Gentile  world  had  sickened  him  out  of  all  that. 
He  accepted  Baptism  and  the  Lord’s  supper  as 
beneficial  rites,  but  to  administer  these  was  not 
his  special  vocation.  He  had  but  one  work  to 
do  and  that  was  to  preach.  Now  and  then  he 
baptized  a  convert,  but  it  made  such  a  slight  im¬ 
pression  on  him  that,  on  his  own  confession,  he 


HIS  BREADTH  AND  NARROW\NESS  233 

could  hardly  remember  just  who  the  persons  were. 
He  gave  himself  up  to  preaching.  “Woe  is  me 
if  I  do  not  preach!”  He  tried  to  make  preachers 
out  of  the  ablest  of  the  young  men  who  came 
under  his  influence.  “Preach  the  word ;  be  ur¬ 
gent  in  season,  and  out  of  season!”  That  was  his 
exhortation,  and  it  comes  ringing  across  the  cen¬ 
turies  with  such  arresting  power,  that  even  today 
ministers  of  Jesus  are  quickened  by  it.  The  su¬ 
preme  work  in  this  world — he  thought — is 
preaching.  He  had  but  one  mission,  and  that 
was  to  preach.  He  had  only  one  ambition,  to 
be  the  kind  of  man  God  wanted  him  to  be.  He 
had  but  one  aim,  to  make  progress  in  his  knowl¬ 
edge  of  God.  He  had  but  one  joy,  the  joy  of 
completing  his  course.  He  had  but  one  desire 
for  the  next  world,  and  that  was  to  be  with 
Christ.  He  lived  a  narrow  life. 

His  world  was  as  short  as  it  was  narrow.  He 
saw  the  end  of  all  things  earthly  only  a  little  dis¬ 
tance  ahead  of  him.  This  colored  a  large  part 
of  his  teaching.  It  accounts  in  a  measure  for  his 
constant  use  of  the  word  “Obey.”  To  all  citi¬ 
zens  he  said,  “Obey  the  civil  officials.”  To  all 
wives  he  said,  “Obey  your  husband.”  To  all 
slaves  he  said,  “Obey  your  master.”  To  every  one 
he  said — “Stay  where  you  are.  Be  content  where 
you  are.  Serve  God  where  you  are.” 

In  this  way,  Paul’s  life  and  words  become  mis¬ 
leading.  Good  men  in  their  desire  to  become 


234 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


like  him  have  turned  their  back  upon  science  and 
philosophy  and  art,  upon  business  and  politics 
and  amusements,  some  of  them  even  on  married 
life  itself.  Everything  not  connected  openly  with 
religion  has  been  condemned  as  worldly  and  dan¬ 
gerous.  Under  the  influence  of  Paul,  men  have 
become  monks  and  hidden  themselves  completely 
from  the  world.  Others  have  not  gone  into  a  cell 
or  a  cave,  but  have  carried  the  monastic  idea  into 
their  life.  Listening  to  Paul’s  exhortation, 
“Come  out  from  among  them  and  be  ye  sepa¬ 
rate,”  they  have  refused  to  have  anything  to  do 
with  politics,  or  to  take  part  in  any  moral  reform, 
or  to  give  support  to  any  movement  for  the  ad¬ 
vance  of  education  or  science  or  art.  Nothing 
has  been  of  moment  to  them  but  the  saving  of 
their  own  soul. 

Under  the  guidance  of  Paul,  men  have  pushed 
the  doctrine  of  obedience  to  disastrous  extremes. 
They  have  urged  submission  to  despots  no  matter 
how  tyrannical,  and  obedience  to  husbands  no 
matter  how  inhuman,  and  obedience  to  slave  own¬ 
ers  no  matter  how  cruel,  and  have  all  the  while 
claimed  that  they  were  following  the  instruc¬ 
tions  of  Paul. 

Under  the  sway  of  Paul’s  letters,  devout  men 
have  become  afraid  of  philosophy,  and  hostile  to 
science  and  suspicious  of  art,  and  exceedingly 
wrathful  against  every  form  of  amusement.  If 
the  Church  is  frequently  accused  of  narrow- 


HIS  BREADTH  AND  NARROWNESS  235 


mindedness  and  bigotry,  it  is  because  of  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  men  and  women  who  have  been  mis¬ 
guided  by  Paul. 

But  Paul  must  not  be  blamed  for  all  the  ec¬ 
centricities  and  blunderings  of  his  disciples.  His 
disciples  have  drawn  mistaken  inferences  from 
what  he  said  and  did.  Paul  was  a  preacher  and 
like  most  sensible  men,  he  stuck  to  his  work.  The 
higher  the  work  the  greater  the  necessity  for  con¬ 
centration.  Because  Paul  was  a  preacher,  he 
could  not  do  anything  else.  But  only  a  few  men 
are  called  to  be  preachers,  and  therefore  most 
men  can  never  live  like  Paul.  Humanity  cannot 
get  on  without  artists  and  scientists  and  philoso¬ 
phers  and  business  men  and  statesmen  and  actors 
and  singers  and  lawyers  and  doctors  and  teachers 
and  authors  and  artisans  and  farmers  and  miners 
and  sailors  and  cooks,  and  each  man  must  give 
himself  up  completely  to  the  work  to  which  he 
is  called.  The  world  would  be  insipid  and  im¬ 
possible  if  all  men  lived  the  life  of  Paul.  All  men 
cannot  live  the  life  of  Raphael,  or  Wagner,  or 
Sir  Christopher  Wren,  or  Kant,  or  Gladstone,  or 
Pasteur,  or  Edwin  Booth,  or  Caruso.  Every 
man  must  live  his  own  life.  Paul  lived  his,  and 
we  must  live  ours.  In  order  to  do  his  work  well, 
Paul  had  to  give  up  many  things  as  every  man 
must  do,  no  matter  what  his  work  is.  If  Paul 
gave  up  science  and  art,  it  does  not  follow  that 
all  men  must  give  them  up.  Because  he  had  no 


236  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

time  for  amusements,  we  are  not  to  conclude  that 
amusements  are  of  the  devil,  and  are  to  be  ban¬ 
ished  from  the  earth. 

Furthermore,  advice  given  to  one  generation 
is  not  necessarily  good  for  all  time.  What  Paul 
said  when  Christians  were  few  and  without  in¬ 
fluence  becomes  mischievous  if  repeated  when 
Christians  are  numbered  by  the  millions  and  hold 
in  their  hands  a  large  part  of  the  wealth  and 
power  of  the  world.  It  is  sinful  to  be  content 
when  conditions  are  corrupt  and  can  be  changed. 
It  is  a  disgrace  to  continue  a  corrupt  government 
when  that  government  can  be  reformed.  Why 
allow  an  iniquitous  institution  to  survive  when 
there  are  enough  Christian  men  and  women  to 
overthrow  it?  Every  religious  teacher  must  talk 
to  his  own  age.  Paul  talked  to  the  first  century, 
and  it  was  sensible  talk.  When  we  read  the  New 
Testament  wisely,  we  discard  the  paragraphs 
which  the  world  has  outgrown,  retaining  only  the 
teachings  which  contain  guidance  for  us. 

It  is  not  the  form  of  Paul’s  life  but  the  soul 
of  it,  not  the  letter  of  his  words  but  the  spirit 
of  them,  which  we  are  to  treasure  and  follow. 
Even  Jesus  of  Nazareth  is  not  to  be  copied.  We 
follow  him  only  when  we  have  his  spirit.  “Let 
this  mind  be  in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ 

Jesus - ”  so  wrote  Paul  to  the  Philippians,  and 

his  exhortation  is  good  for  all  time.  Through 
the  ages,  the  world  will  be  in  need  of  men  who 


HIS  BREADTH  AND  NARROWNESS  237 


take  upon  them  the  form  of  a  servant,  and  who, 
humbling  themselves,  become  obedient  unto  God 
all  the  way  to  death. 

When  we  get  the  mind  of  Paul,  we  have  a 
mind  which  is  broad.  He  is  the  broadest  minded 
man  mentioned  in  the  Bible.  It  was  his  broad 
mindedness  which  brought  upon  him  the  execra¬ 
tion  of  his  countrymen.  The  crowd  in  the  Tem¬ 
ple  court  listened  patiently  to  him  until  he  said 
that  he  had  been  sent  by  heaven  to  the  Gentiles, 
and  then  they  began  to  howl — “Away  with  such 
a  fellow  from  the  earth;  for  it  is  not  fit  that  he 
should  live.”  And  as  they  screamed  and  yelled, 
they  tore  off  their  outer  clothing,  and  threw  dust 
into  the  air  like  men  bereft  of  reason.  Paul  had 
offended  their  narrow  hearts.  His  outlook  was 
broad.  He  carried  the  whole  world  in  his  eye. 
“I  want  to  go  to  Spain,”  he  said,  and  Spain  was 
the  very  end  of  the  earth.  Beyond  Spain  there 
was  nothing  but  darkness,  and  a  sea  without  a 
shore.  His  spirit  roamed  constantly  over  all  the 
lands,  dreaming  of  a  new  world  order.  No  won¬ 
der  he  was  inexplicable  to  the  bigots  who  opposed 
him. 

His  mind  was  wonderfully  hospitable.  He 
could  make  room  for  the  new  and  still  have 
space  for  the  old.  He  could  become  a  Christian 
and  remain  a  Pharisee.  He  could  be  true  to  Christ 
and  still  love  the  old  Jewish  festivals  and  time 
honored  ceremonies.  He  could  be  a  faithful  fol- 


238  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

lower  of  Jesus,  and  still  shave  his  head,  and 
take  his  place  as  a  Nazarite  in  the  Temple.  Few 
men  attain  such  breadth.  When  they  give  up  the 
old,  they  scoff  at  it.  Paul  never  sneered  at  the 
things  which  he  outgrew.  The  religion  of  his 
fathers  was  always  sacred  to  him. 

He  was  so  broad  that  he  could  sympathize  with 
men  whose  ideas  he  could  not  share,  and  whose 
conduct  he  could  not  approve.  He  was  broad 
enough  to  be  respectful  toward  narrow  men.  He 
never  boasted — as  some  men  did  and  do — -of  his 
breadth.  He  showed  how  broad  he  was  by  the 
kind  of  life  he  lived. 

His  mind  was  capacious  enough  to  take  in  all 
schools  of  Christian  thought.  There  were  four 
parties  in  the  Church  in  Corinth— one  of  Paul, 
one  of  Apollos,  one  of  Cephas,  and  one  of  Christ. 
Each  party  extolled  a  truth,  and  each  party  had 
a  leader  who  was  worthy  of  trust.  Paul  could 
take  in  all  the  truths  and  all  the  leaders,  feeling 
that  all  belonged  to  him.  Why  confine  oneself 
to  a  single  leader  or  to  a  solitary  aspect  of  truth, 
when  all  leaders  exist  for  the  service  of  all  who 
are  willing  to  use  them,  and  when  every  truth  is 
a  part  of  the  property  which  belongs  to  every 
man? 

The  great  Aristotle  spoke  contemptuously  of 
woman.  Paul  never  did.  His  broad  mind  took 
her  in.  He  gave  her  an  honored  place  in  the 
Church,  and  also  in  his  own  heart.  Some  of  his 


HIS  BREADTH  AND  NARROWNESS  239 

best  friends  and  most  capable  helpers  were 
women. 

Paul  did  not  draw  the  line  at  slaves.  He  took 
them  in  also.  His  heart  was  so  big  that  even  a 
thieving  and  vagabond  slave  could  come  in.  He 
had  room  for  all  classes  from  the  highest  to  the 
lowest.  “I  am  debtor,”  he  said  “to  Greeks  and 
Barbarians,  both  to  the  educated  and  the  unedu¬ 
cated.”  He  knew  he  had  gotten  good  from  all 
classes,  and  therefore  he  would  pay  his  debt  to  all. 

He  was  the  friend  of  all  races.  There  was  not 
a  trace  of  racial  prejudice  in  his  heart.  All  racial 
distinctions  had  vanished  from  his  eye.  “There 
is  no  room,”  he  was  in  the  habit  of  saying,  “for 
Greek  and  Jew,  circumcision  and  uncircumcision, 
barbarian,  Scythian,  slave  or  freeman,  Christ  is 
everything  and  everywhere.”  Behold  the  man!  a 
member  of  the  most  illiberal  party  of  the  most 
exclusive  tribe  of  the  most  bigoted  race  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  the  son  of  religious  intolerance 
and  racial  pride — with  the  doors  of  his  heart  wide 
open,  glad  to  receive  as  his  brothers  all  sorts  and 
conditions  of  men! 

The  wide  sweep  of  Paul’s  comprehensive  mind 
is  strikingly  disclosed  in  three  of  his  sermons  re¬ 
ported  by  Luke.  Luke,  being  a  Gentile,  was  al¬ 
ways  peculiarly  impressed  by  the  catholicity  of 
Paul’s  mind.  In  his  sermon  in  Antioch  in  Pisidia, 
Paul  shows  how  Christianity  is  the  completion  of 
Judaism.  What  was  promised  by  the  Prophets 


240 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


is  in  Jesus  fulfilled.  Jesus  is  the  consummation 
of  the  hope  of  the  Jewish  race.  There  is  no  op¬ 
position  between  Judaism  and  Christianity — one 
is  the  bud  and  the  other  the  flower. 

In  Lystra,  Paul  is  preaching  to  the  worship¬ 
pers  of  Jupiter.  He  assumes  that  the  people  of 
Lystra  have  enjoyed  a  divine  revelation.  In  the 
rains  and  fruitful  seasons,  in  the  manifold  bless¬ 
ings  which  are  showered  on  human  hearts  and 
homes,  God  keeps  on  testifying  of  his  goodness. 
Paul’s  aim  is  to  turn  their  minds  to  the  living 
God  who  made  the  heaven,  the  earth,  the  sea, 
and  all  that  in  them  is.  Here  again,  Christianity 
is  represented  as  the  consummation  of  the  revela¬ 
tion  which  has  already  been  made  in  part  to  the 
pejople  to  whom  he  is  preaching. 

In  Athens,  Paul  recognizes  the  revelation  of 
God  to  the  Greek  mind.  God  is  indeed  in  one 
sense  high  above  and  away  from  the  world  as 
the  Epicureans  have  taught,  and  in  another  sense 
he  is  immanent  in  the  world  as  the  Stoics  have 
always  maintained.  He  speaks  often  through 
poets,  and  Epimenides  and  Aratus  have  given 
expression  to  fundamental  religious  truths.  But 
Paul  would  carry  his  hearers  farther.  He  would 
unfold  a  truth  which  the  Athenians  did  not  yet 
know.  His  doctrine  is  the  fulfilment  of  an  age¬ 
long  human  yearning  after  God.  Paul’s  mind 
was  so  far  reaching  and  so  generous,  that  he 
could  recognize  the  truths  of  all  religions,  and 


HIS  BREADTH  AND  NARROWNESS  24I 


could  see  in  them  anticipations  of  the  full  truth 
in  Christ.  In  his  gracious  broad-mindedness,  in 
his  intellectual  hospitality,  and  in  his  courteous 
recognition  of  the  truths  imbedded  in  other  faiths, 
he  remains  an  example  for  all  time  for  the 
preachers  of  Christianity  to  follow. 

It  is  by  his  breadth  that  he  makes  a  special  ap¬ 
peal  to  our  generation.  In  his  broad-mindedness 
and  broad-heartedness,  he  is  an  anointed  mes¬ 
senger  of  God  to  our  times.  The  curse  of  our 
day  is  the  narrow  mind  and  the  contracted  heart. 
Men  are  too  narrow  to  do  the  vast  work  which 
God  has  given  them  to  do.  We  are  disgraced 
by  our  ecclesiastical  bigotries  and  sectarianisms. 
Our  ideas  are  too  often  parochial,  and  our  ambi¬ 
tions  are  often  pitiably  petty.  Grown  men  act 
too  often  like  children,  and  the  controversies  and 
rivalries  which  agitate  the  Church  are  for  the 
most  part  the  product  of  minds  which  are  one¬ 
sided  and  of  hearts  which  are  stunted.  We  need 
Paul  to  come  with  his  largeness,  and  shame  us 
out  of  our  narrow  thoughts  and  ways. 

We  are  plagued  by  our  partisanship.  Civil 
government  is  constantly  handicapped  by  the  nar¬ 
row-mindedness  of  its  servants.  It  limps  and 
halts  because  men  persist  in  placing  the  victory 
of  party  above  the  good  of  all.  We  need  to  sit 
at  the  feet  of  Paul  and  learn  that  all  political 
leaders  have  a  service  to  render,  and  that  the  na¬ 
tion  has  need  of  the  gifts  of  them  all. 


242 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


We  are  tormented  by  class  antagonisms.  La¬ 
bor  is  arrayed  against  capital,  and  capital  against 
labor.  The  rich  look  down  on  the  poor  with  con¬ 
descension,  and  the  poor  look  up  to  the  rich  in 
scorn.  The  educated  sneer  at  the  unschooled,  and 
the  ignorant  sniff  at  the  cultured.  Prophets  have 
gone  forth  to  preach  a  class  war.  We  need  to 
have  Paul  tell  us  again — that  “if  one  member 
suffers  all  the  members  suffer  with  it,  or  if  one 
member  is  honored  all  the  members  rejoice  with 
it.” 

We  are  cursed  by  race  prejudices.  They  burn 
like  hell-fire  in  the  blood  of  the  people.  They 
are  scorching  hot  in  every  Christian  land.  We 
need  the  teacher  who  will  say  to  us,  “There  can 
be  neither  Jew  nor  Greek,  there  can  be  neither 
bond  nor  free,  there  can  be  no  male  and  female, 
for  ye  are  all  one  in  Christ  Jesus.” 

The  very  existence  of  civilization  is  jeopardized 
by  our  national  suspicions  and  hatreds.  Nations 
are  so  afraid  of  one  another,  that  they  weight 
themselves  down  with  armor.  Patriotism  is  too 
often  little  more  than  hatred  of  foreign  countries. 
The  man  who  is  fond  of  any  country  but  his  own, 
is  suspected  of  having  the  heart  of  a  traitor.  We 
need  the  saving  influence  of  the  great-hearted 
Paul,  the  man  who  loved  all  classes  and  all  na¬ 
tions  and  all  races,  because  Christ  died  for  them 
all. 

It  was  Paul’s  breadth,  then,  which  caused  him 


HIS  BREADTH  AND  NARROWNESS  248 


to  be  narrow.  His  life  was  made  narrow,  be¬ 
cause  his  heart  was  so  broad.  The  reason  he 
counted  so  many  things  as  refuse  and  dross,  was 
because  he  had  a  whole  world  to  serve.  He  con¬ 
centrated  every  ounce  of  his  strength  and  every 
hour  of  the  day  upon  the  one  work  of  preaching, 
because  of  his  eagerness  to  tell  all  the  nations  of 
the  wonder  of  God’s  love  in  Christ.  He  walked 
along  a  narrow  path  that  he  might  bring  man¬ 
kind  out  into  a  place  that  is  large.  Like  his  Mas¬ 
ter,  he  had  a  baptism  to  be  baptized  with,  and  he 
was  straitened — contracted,  hemmed  in — till  it 
was  accomplished. 


XVIII 


HIS  SYMPATHY 


XVIII 


HIS  SYMPATHY 

By  sympathy  is  meant  fellow-feeling.  We  sym¬ 
pathize  with  a  person  when  we  feel  with  him, 
when  we  share  his  feelings  no  matter  what  they 
are.  We  put  ourselves  in  his  place,  and  his  ex¬ 
perience  repeats  itself  in  us.  This  is  sympathy  in 
the  full  meaning  of  the  word.  But  words  some¬ 
times  lose  a  part  of  their  original  content,  and 
our  word  “sympathy”  is  gradually  becoming 
poorer.  It  is  coming  to  mean  pity.  Pity  is  a 
form  of  sympathy  extended  in  one  direction  only, 
in  the  direction  of  the  weak,  and  the  weak  is  the 
inferior.  We  pity  those  who  are  below  us,  the 
poor,  the  unfortunate,  the  outcast,  the  victims  of 
vice,  all  who  are  overwhelmed  by  affliction.  We 
pity  animals  in  pain,  and  a  bird  with  a  broken 
wing.  We  sympathize  when  we  enter  into  an¬ 
other’s  feelings,  whether  that  person  is  below  us 
or  above  us,  or  whether  the  experience  is  joyous 
or  sad.  Sympathy  goes  up  as  well  as  down.  We 
ought  to  sympathize  with  the  rich  in  their  pros¬ 
perity,  and  with  the  successful  in  their  victory, 

247 


248 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


and  with  the  robust  in  their  health,  and  with  the 
strong  in  their  might.  Paul  is  exhorting  us  to 
sympathy  when  he  says — “Rejoice  with  them  that 
rejoice,  and  weep  with  them  that  weep.”  Sym¬ 
pathy  laughs  as  well  as  cries,  sings  as  well  as 
sobs.  But  not  thus  is  the  word  “sympathy”  used 
in  our  current  speech.  We  sympathize  only  with 
those  who  are  in  trouble.  We  sympathize  at 
funerals  and  not  at  weddings.  If  a  man  inherits 
a  fortune,  we  do  not  tell  him  we  sympathize 
with  him,  but  if  he  loses  a  child,  we  assure  him 
of  our  sympathy.  The  feeling  which  goes  out 
toward  the  strong  and  successful  and  jubilant  is 
not  called  sympathy :  only  the  feeling  which  goes 
out  to  the  bereaved,  the  defeated  and  the  sad- 
hearted. 

Paul  was  sympathetic  in  the  full-toned  sense 
of  that  word.  He  felt  with  men  below  him,  and 
also  with  men  above  him.  His  heart  went  out 
to  peasants  and  also  to  kings.  He  had  an  experi¬ 
encing  nature.  He  penetrated  the  lives  of  others. 
He  lived  a  thousand  lives  and  died  a  thousand 
deaths.  It  was  his  intense  sympathy  which  caused 
him  to  bleed  when  his  converts  suffered.  “Who 
is  weak  and  I  am  not  weak?”  When  he  saw  his 
converts  overwhelmed  by  the  pitiless  forces  of 
the  world,  his  own  strength  went  out  of  him,  and 
he  lay  prostrate  by  their  side.  “Who  is  caused 
to  stumble  and  I  burn  not?”  He  could  not  see 
a  man  or  woman  wronged  without  smarting  un- 


HIS  SYMPATHY 


249 


der  the  wrong  himself.  He  identified  himself  so 
completely  with  others,  that  in  their  joy  he  was 
radiant,  and  in  their  grief  he  was  distressed.  “It 
is  life  to  me  now” — he  writes  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians,  “if  ye  stand  firm  in  the  Lord.  How  can 
I  render  thanks  enough  to  God  for  you,  for  all 
the  joy  you  make  me  feel  in  the  presence  of  our 
God?” 

His  sympathy  was  as  broad  as  it  was  intense. 
Many  men  have  keen  sympathies,  but  they  move 
within  a  narrow  circle.  The  illness  of  any  mem¬ 
ber  of  their  own  household  fills  them  with  pain¬ 
ful  anxiety.  The  misfortune  of  any  of  their 
friends  casts  a  deep  gloom  over  their  heart.  But 
by  what  goes  on  outside  the  circle  of  those  to 
whom  they  are  immediately  related,  their  soul  is 
unmoved.  The  sufferings  of  the  great  world  do 
not  darken  their  sky.  Not  so  was  it  with  Paul. 
His  sympathies  went  out  to  the  North  and  the 
South,  to  the  East  and  the  West,  and  they  trav¬ 
eled  far.  Some  men  cannot  sympathize  across 
class  lines.  It  is  the  people  of  their  own  class, 
who  enlist  their  concern.  Others  cannot  feel  viv- 
idly  across  national  boundaries.  Their  sympathies 
stop  at  the  national  frontier.  They  feel  keenly 
the  tribulations  of  their  own  countrymen;  for¬ 
eigners  live  in  a  world  beyond  their  reach.  The 
sympathies  of  some  men  are  so  weak,  that  they 
cannot  travel  across  differences  of  opinion.  To 
the  members  of  their  own  Church  or  their  own 


250 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


party,  they  give  a  sympathetic  ear,  but  to  all 
others  they  are  deaf.  For  them  to  enter  into  the 
viewpoint  of  another,  or  to  appreciate  his  feel¬ 
ings  and  convictions  is  impossible.  Only  a  few 
can  sympathize  with  an  avowed  enemy.  An* 
enemy  is  painted  black  as  Satan.  Whatever  he 
thinks  or  feels  or  says  or  does,  is  born  of  hell. 
His  misfortunes  do  not  call  forth  commiseration, 
but  induce  satisfaction  and  secret  joy. 

Paul  had  a  fellow  feeling  with  all  classes  of 
human  beings.  He  felt  at  home  everywhere.  To 
the  Jews  he  became  a  Jew.  He  never  forgot  how 
a  Jew  felt.  He  could  look  upon  the  world  out  of 
a  Jew’s  eyes.  He  could  feel  with  a  Jew  when  a 
a  Jew  opposed  the  religion  of  Jesus,  because  he 
had  once  opposed  this  religion  himself.  To  them 
who  were  under  the  law,  he  became  as  under  the 
law.  He  himself  was  no  longer  under  the  law. 
He  had  ceased  to  feel  the  binding  force  of  the 
Mosaic  legislation,  but  he  could  appreciate  the 
feelings  of  the  men  who  were  still  under  it,  and 
though  he  could  not  share  their  convictions,  he 
could  understand  their  position. 

His  sympathy  did  not  stop  with  the  Jews.  He 
felt  with  the  Gentiles  also.  Although  not  a  Gen¬ 
tile  himself,  he  could  imagine  how  a  Gentile  must 
feel.  The  Gentile  heredity  and  environment  pro¬ 
duced  instincts  and  impulses  and  standards  unlike 
those  of  the  Jews,  but  Paul  had  so  much  human 
nature  in  him  that  he  could  interpret  the  Gentile 


HIS  SYMPATHY 


251 


disposition  and  share  in  the  Gentile  perplexities 
and  admirations.  To  them  who  were  outside  the 
law,  he  became  as  one  who  was  also  outside,  tak¬ 
ing  his  place  by  the  side  of  his  Gentile  convert, 
acknowledging  him  as  his  brother.  Strong  men 
are  not  always  patient  with  the  weak.  The  man 
with  the  flabby  will,  the  man  with  the  foolish 
scruples,  the  man  with  the  groundless  fears,  the 
man  with  fluctuating  ambitions  and  purposes,  the 
man  with  endless  shrinkings  and  hesitations,  these 
are  men  who  try  the  soul  of  the  man  who  is 
strong.  But  to  the  weak,  Paul  became  weak.  He 
always  said — “We  who  are  strong  ought  to  bear 
the  infirmities  of  the  weak.”  There  is  no  severer 
test  of  sympathy  than  the  foibles  and  crotchety 
exactions  of  those  who  lack  strength.  Paul's  heart 
went  out  to  the  weak.  They  were  young  children 
just  beginning  to  walk.  They  could  not  take 
long  steps,  and  so  he  shortened  his  step  in  order 
that  he  might  walk  by  their  side.  They  could 
not  understand  long  words,  and  so  he  used  short 
words  just  as  mothers  do  with  their  children. 
They  were  frightened  by  shadows,  and  distressed 
by  trifles,  but  he  bore  with  them  and  entered  into 
all  their  perplexities  and  distresses. 

To  the  Greek  Paul  became  as  a  Greek,  to  a  Ro¬ 
man  as  a  Roman,  to  a  Galatian  as  a  Galatian,  to 
a  Pharisee  as  a  Pharisee,  to  a  Sanhedrist  as  a 
Sanhedrist,  to  a  philosopher  as  a  philosopher,  to 
a  peasant  as  a  peasant,  and  to  a  king  as  a  king, 


252 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


talking  to  the  monarch  in  a  royal  way,  and  saying, 
“I  wish  you  were  the  man  I  am — all  except  these 
chains  around  my  wrists.”  Paul  sympathized 
with  Agrippa,  because  although  a  Jew  and  a  king, 
he  had  not  yet  seen  the  light. 

He  sympathized  with  the  poor  benighted  idol¬ 
aters  of  pagan  lands.  Their  foolish  beliefs  and 
superstitious  rites  did  not  fill  him  with  disgust  or 
drive  him  away.  On  the  other  hand,  these  drew 
him  to  them.  He  felt  with  them  in  their  yearn¬ 
ings  and  wanderings,  and  his  compassion  was  50 
deep  that  he  was  willing  to  give  his  life  to  helping 
them. 

He  sympathized  with  the  Athenian  philoso¬ 
phers.  Pie  knew  what  philosophy  could  do  and 
not  do,  what  the  poets  had  seen  and  not  seen, 
what  culture  had  to  give  and  what  it  lacked,  what 
the  Greek  mind  had  discovered  and  what  lay  be¬ 
yond  its  ken,  and  when  he  looked  upon  Athens 
with  all  its  schools  and  its  teachers,  he  was  moved 
with  compassion,  and  attempted  to  enlighten  its 
darkness.  He  knew  that  the  Greek  heart,  like 
every  other  heart,  was  hungry  for  God,  and  the 
tragedy  of  their  failure  to  find  him  was  confessed 
in  an  inscription  which  they  had  carved  on  one 
of  their  altars— “To  an  unknown  God.”  “The 
one  whom  you  are  worshipping  in  ignorance,”  he 
said,  “is  the  one  whose  character  I  have  come  to 
make  clear.  I  have  come  to  tell  you  of  the  God 
who  made  the  world  and  everything  in  it,  and 


HIS  SYMPATHY 


253 

whose  children  you  are.”  This  is  the  courteous 
speech  of  a  deeply  sympathetic  man. 

His  heart  was  compassionate  toward  the  men 
who  despised  him.  He  knew  from  his  own  ex¬ 
perience  what  conscientious  men  in  their  igno¬ 
rance  can  do.  It  is  because  their  eyes  are  blinded 
that  they  remain  in  their  unbelief.  He  often 
thought  of  the  veil  which  was  said  to  have  been 
hung  over  the  faces  of  Moses,  and  that  veil  made 
him  think  of  the  veil  which  kept  his  countrymen 
from  seeing  that  the  glory  of  Moses  fades  in 
Christ.  “Yes,”  he  said,  “down  to  this  day,  when¬ 
ever  Moses  is  read  aloud,  the  veil  rests  on  their 
heart,”  but  this  did  not  dampen  his  enthusiasm  or 
dull  the  edge  of  his  compassion. 

It  was  his  abiding  sympathy  which  made  him 
unfailingly  courteous.  So  long  as  a  man  is  sym¬ 
pathetic,  he  cannot  easily  be  impolite.  It  gave 
him  amazing  powers  of  patience.  If  a  man  feels 
deeply  with  the  men  who  need  him,  he  is  never 
likely  to  forsake  them.  Because  of  his  sympathy, 
his  forbearance  was  unparalleled.  Calumny  and 
hatred  could  not  break  him  down.  He  was  al¬ 
ways  putting  himself  in  the  other  man’s  place. 
Does  he  start  to  argue  a  theological  thesis,  he 
keeps  the  man  who  takes  the  other  side  always 
in  sight.  He  expresses  that  man’s  ideas  for  him, 
puts  his  questions,  states  his  objections,  sets  forth 
his  position,  always  putting  himself  in  the  place 
of  those  with  whom  he  is  arguing.  He  can  ap- 


254 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


preciate  the  force  of  the  arguments  which  are 
urged  against  him,  and  can  enter  into  the  mind 
of  the  man  who  has  not  yet  been  convinced. 

He  can  sympathize  with  the  critics  of  public 
worship.  He  can  see  things  through  the  eyes  of 
the  outsider.  He  puts  himself  in  the  critics’ 
place,  thinks  with  his  mind  and  speaks  with  his 
mouth.  In  dealing  with  the  disorder  in  the  wor¬ 
ship  of  the  Church  in  Corinth,  he  says,  “If  you 
persist  in  blessing  God  in  a  tongue  which  no  one 
can  understand,  how  is  the  outsider  to  know  when 
to  say  'Amen’?  If  outsiders  come  in  when  you 
are  all  speaking  with  tongues,  will  they  not  say 
you  are  crazy?”  He  could  look  at  the  Church 
from  within,  and  he  could  look  at  it  from  with¬ 
out.  He  was  always  putting  himself  in  the  other 
man’s  place. 

It  was  his  sympathy  which  made  his  heart  so 
frequently  anxious.  It  is  only  sensitive  and  af¬ 
fectionate  natures  which  know  what  worry  really 
is.  All  of  his  churches  were  subjected  to  con¬ 
tinuous  assault.  Men  savage  as  wolves  would 
break  in,  not  sparing  the  flock,  and  sometimes 
even  members  of  the  Church,  falling  into  fanati¬ 
cisms  and  heresies,  would  lead  believers  astray. 
When  Paul  was  absent  from  one  of  his  Churches, 
his  heart  was  in  a  chronic  state  of  solicitude.  He 
was  always  hungering  for  news.  He  was  eager 
to  know  how  the  brethren  were  getting  along. 
When  no  news  came,  his  heart  was  filled  with  dis- 


HIS  SYMPATHY  255 

mal  forebodings.  When  good  news  came,  his  cup 
ran  over. 

If  we  seek  an  explanation  of  this  astonishing 
and  unfailing  sympathy,  we  must  look  for  it  in 
the  fulness  of  his  humanity.  Human  nature  was 
strong  in  him.  He  had  in  him  not  one  man  only, 
but  many  men.  The  Jew  was  in  him,  but  the 
Greek  was  in  him  too,  and  the  Roman  also,  and 
so  were  men  of  many  other  lands.  It  was  because 
there  were  so  many  men  within  him,  that  he  could 
appreciate  and  find  interest  in  so  many  men  out¬ 
side.  In  his  heart  were  the  thoughts  and  feelings, 
the  affinities  and  antipathies,  the  agreements  and 
the  contradictions  of  our  common  human  nature. 
He  carried  within  him  the  streams  of  pride  and 
passion,  fear  and  joy,  hate  and  love  which  lie  deep 
in  all  men’s  souls.  Because  all  the  currents  of  im¬ 
pulse  and  inclination,  aspiration  and  yearning 
were  mighty  in  him,  he  could  enter  into  the  souls 
of  others.  The  life  he  lived  opened  up  in  his 
heart  new  fountains  of  sympathetic  feeling.  Be¬ 
cause  he  had  suffered  so  much  himself,  he  knew 
how  to  enter  into  the  sufferings  of  others.  His 
suffering  fed  his  sympathy,  and  his  sympathy 
made  him  willing  to  suffer  more. 

And  thus  through  his  sympathy  did  he  become 
a  man  of  power.  Because  he  sympathized  with 
men  he  was  able  to  understand  them.  No  man 
understands  another  man  except  through  a  sym¬ 
pathetic  spirit.  Men  were  drawn  to  him  because 


256  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

they  knew  he  felt  with  them,  and  they  could  not 
leave  him  after  they  once  had  felt  the  beating 
of  his  tender  heart.  They  felt  that  here  at  last 
was  a  man  who  understood  them,  and  who  cared 
for  them,  no  matter  who  or  what  they  were. 

Some  of  Paul’s  ideas  are  of  little  present  worth. 
Some  of  his  arguments  no  longer  convince.  Some 
of  his  theology  has  been  left  behind,  but  his  sym¬ 
pathy  is  an  imperishable  possession.  That  shines 
with  a  glory  all  undimmed,  and  will  shine  like 
the  stars  forever.  There  are  treasures  which  rust 
and  moths  do  not  consume,  and  which  the  thief 
of  time  cannot  break  through  and  steal.  Sym¬ 
pathy  is  gold  laid  up  in  heaven.  That  subtle 
and  much  vaunted  something  known  as  Paulin- 
ism,  may  some  day  pass  away.  “Our  little  sys¬ 
tems  have  their  day,  they  have  their  day  and 
cease  to  be.”  What  the  world  most  needs  is  not 
Paulinism,  but  Paul.  It  needs  the  warmth  and 
uplift  of  his  sympathetic  soul.  One  of  the  criti¬ 
cal  questions  of  our  day  is,  how  long  will  the 
earth’s  stock  of  coal  supply  our  needs?  Experts 
earnestly  discuss  the  extent  of  the  coal  deposits, 
and  calculate  the  date  at  which  the  stock  of  coal 
will  be  exhausted.  A  far  more  momentous  ques¬ 
tion  is,  “How  long  will  the  world’s  stock  of  sym¬ 
pathy  hold  out?”  Is  sympathy  a  form  of  power 
which  can  be  exhausted?  Will  men  some  day 
cease  to  feel  with  one  another  across  the  lines  of 
class  and  nation  and  race  ?  Will  the  human  heart 


HIS  SYMPATHY 


257 


like  the  earth  some  day  grow  cold?  Sympathy 
is  one  of  the  mighty  forces  by  which  society  func¬ 
tions,  and  without  it  civilization  would  crumble 
to  ruins. 

The  world  needs  it  more  and  more.  Men  phy¬ 
sically  are  coming  ever  closer  together,  and  with¬ 
out  sympathy  these  multiplying  social  contacts 
must  produce  increasing  irritation  and  peril.  It 
is  a  sad  world  we  are  living  in,  and  hearts  every¬ 
where  are  craving  a  response  which  is  denied 
them.  Lives  on  every  side  are  going  to  waste, 
because  of  the  lack  of  a  sympathetic  touch.  Thou¬ 
sands  are  wretched  because  they  are  not  under¬ 
stood,  and  tens  of  thousands  are  lonely  because 
no  one  seems  to  care.  Mankind  is  in  sore  need 
of  the  strength  which  comes  from  the  felt  throb 
of  a  sympathetic  heart. 

It  is  in  his  sympathy  that  we  find  another  in¬ 
contestable  proof  of  Paul’s  inspiration.  We  have 
too  long  looked  for  proofs  of  inspiration  solely 
in  the  realm  of  dogmatic  assertion.  We  have 
made  inerrancy  in  opinion,  the  one  test  of  an 
Apostle’s  commission  from  heaven.  Minor  dis¬ 
crepancies  and  verbal  contradictions  have  been 
dwelt  on  as  matters  of  immeasurable  importance, 
and  one  mistaken  opinion  has  been  considered 
sufficient  to  overthrow  the  whole  doctrine  of 
Biblical  inspiration.  But  the  convincing  evidences 
of  inspiration  must  be  sought  at  last  in  the  realm 
of  character.  Paul’s  inspiration  is  proved  not 


258 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


by  his  doctrine  of  the  fall,  or  by  his  theory  of 
original  sin,  or  by  what  he  said  concerning  the 
immediate  return  of  Christ,  but  by  his  sympathy 
with  all  kinds  of  people.  What  is  sympathy  but 
a  form  of  the  indwelling  spirit  of  God?  Whence 
comes  this  beautiful  thing  into  human  character 
if  not  from  heaven?  How  could  it  appear  on 
earth  if  it  did  not  exist  in  the  heart  of  the  Eter¬ 
nal?  In  Paul’s  character  we  have  a  divine  reve¬ 
lation.  God  communicates  himself  to  mankind 
through  men  who  are  like  him.  In  his  sympathy 
Jesus  was  like  his  Father,  and  Paul  was  in  his 
sympathy  like  unto  the  Son  of  God.  It  was  the 
breadth  of  Jesus’  sympathy  which  aroused  the 
suspicion  and  then  the  hatred  of  his  countrymen. 
“A  friend  of  publicans  and  sinners”  was  the 
sneering  title  which  was  given  him.  Men  meant 
it  to  be  a  crown  of  thorns,  and  it  has  brightened 
into  a  crown  of  glory.  It  was  the  memory  of 
Christ’s  sympathy  which  moved  and  strengthened 
the  hearts  of  his  disciples  after  a  cloud  had  re¬ 
ceived  him  from  their  sight.  It  was  the  assur¬ 
ance  of  his  continued  sympathy  which  heartened 
them  to  strive  on  and  endure.  They  said  to  one 
another  in  darkened  days — “Ours  is  no  High 
Priest  who  is  incapable  of  sympathizing  with  our 
weakness,  but  one  who  has  been  tried  in  every 
respect  like  ourselves,  yet  without  sinning.  So 
let  us  approach  the  throne  of  grace  with  confi¬ 
dence.” 


XIX 


HIS  THANKFULNESS 


XIX 


HIS  THANKFULNESS 

The  only  reference  to  Paul’s  letters  in  the  New 
Testament  is  found  in  the  Second  Epistle  of  St. 
Peter,  where  we  are  told  that  in  those  letters  are 
“some  things  hard  to  be  understood,  and  which 
the  ignorant  and  unsteadfast  wrest,  as  they  do 
also  the  other  Scriptures,  unto  their  own  de¬ 
struction.”  But  there  are  some  things  also  which 

* 

are  easily  understood,  and  which  no  one,  how¬ 
ever  perverse,  can  wrest  to  his  own  undoing. 
The  gratitude  of  Paul  is  written  large  across  the 
pages  of  his  letters.  He  who  runs  may  read. 
Some  of  the  ideas  of  Paul  are  obscure,  but  none 
of  the  traits  of  his  character  is.  His  reasoning 
may  at  times  be  too  high,  or  his  mysticism  may 
be  too  deep  for  the  average  reader,  but  his  char¬ 
acter  is  easily  within  the  reach  of  all.  Some  of 
his  doctrines  may  be  incredible,  but  no  one  can 
be  caused  to  stumble  by  his  virtues.  There  are 
paragraphs  in  his  letters  which  only  the  scholars 
can  deal  with,  but  there  are  other  paragraphs 
which  every  one  can  easily  take  in.  No  one  is 
left  in  doubt  as  to  his  thankfulness. 


262 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


Some  of  his  sentences  may  be  wrested  to  men’s 
hurt,  but  none  of  them  which  tell  of  his  charac¬ 
ter.  Various  and  conflicting  interpretations  have 
been  given  of  nearly  every  one  of  his  doctrinal 
statements,  but  of  his  capacity  for  gratitude, 
there  is  only  one  opinion.  Interminable  contro¬ 
versies  have  raged  over  his  theories,  but  there 
are  no  discussions  about  his  habitual  practice  of 
giving  thanks. 

Much  that  he  says  is  only  of  local  application. 
It  was  intended  for  the  world  to  which  it  was 
addressed,  but  his  virtues  are  of  universal  sig¬ 
nificance,  and  are  the  precious  possession  of  all 
mankind.  Some  of  his  teaching  was  of  tempo¬ 
rary  importance.  It  has  long  since  become  ar¬ 
chaic  and  outgrown.  But  what  the  man  was  is 
eternal.  The  beauty  of  his  gratitude  is  timeless, 
and  to  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time,  men 
will  come  to  him  to  hear  the  music  of  a  thankful 
heart. 

The  passages  in  which  his  gratitude  is  shown 
have  never  been  disputed.  All  the  doctrinal  par¬ 
agraphs  have  given  rise  to  doubts  and  negations. 
If  a  scholar  does  not  accept  a  theological  idea,  he 
is  almost  sure  to  attack  the  authenticity  of  the 
paragraph  which  contains  it.  He  sees  that  it  is 
an  interpolation,  or  the  cunning  work  of  a  re¬ 
dactor,  or  possibly  the  whole  letter  is  the  produc¬ 
tion  of  a  man  who  lived  long  after  Paul’s  day. 
But  no  one  questions  the  authenticity  of  the  para- 


HIS  THANKFULNESS 


263 


graphs  which  set  forth  Paul’s  gratitude.  Here 
at  any  rate  we  are  on  solid  ground.  Paul’s  ideas 
are  demolished,  but  the  man  Paul  survives.  Men 
doubt  his  eschatology,  but  not  his  grateful  heart. 
They  reject  his  Christology,  but  commend  his 
habit  of  returning  thanks.  The  story  of  his  grati¬ 
tude  cannot  be  taken  from  us. 

His  authority  has  frequently  been  denied. 
When  he  gives  his  theory  of  Adam,  or  pictures 
the  man  of  sin,  or'offers  advice  in  regard  to  mar¬ 
riage,  men  ask — “By  what  authority  do  you  say 
all  this”;  but  no  one  questions  the  authority  of 
his  virtues.  They  speak  to  us  in  a  tone  not  to 
be  contradicted.  There  is  something  within  us 
that  bears  witness  that  these  virtues  are  the  cre¬ 
ation  of  heaven.  By  his  patience  he  says  to  us, 
“Be  patient,”  by  his  courage,  he  says,  “Be  cour¬ 
ageous,”  and  by  his  gratitude,  he  says,  “Be  grate¬ 
ful,”  and  we  feel  that  it  is  God  himself  who  is 
speaking.  It  is  by  the  virtues  of  good  men  that 
God  tells  us  what  kind  of  men  we  ought  to  be. 

In  Paul’s  gratitude  we  see  one  of  the  loveliest 
traits  of  his  character.  Gratitude  is  the  exquisite 
flower  of  a  fine  nature.  It  is  so  beautiful  that 
one  hesitates  to  call  it  a  virtue,  it  seems  to  belong 
among  the  graces.  There  are  strong  characters 
which  do  not  have  it.  The  world  is  full  of  un¬ 
grateful  people,  and  an  ungrateful  person  is  never 
happy.  There  are  multitudes  who  excuse  their 
ingratitude  by  saying  they  have  nothing  to  be 


264 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


grateful  for.  Something  which  they  greatly  de¬ 
sired  has  been  denied  them.  That  excuses  them 
for  life  from  all  obligations  to  be  thankful.  Paul 
was  refused  a  boon  which  he  asked  God  for  again 
and  again,  but  the  refusal  did  not  alter  his  dis¬ 
position.  He  went  right  on  giving  thanks.  Others 
are  not  grateful  because  the  world  has  dealt  with 
them  harshly.  Many  have  treated  them  with  in¬ 
difference,  and  some  with  cruelty,  and  their  heart 
is  left  cynical  and  hard.  Paul  was  “reviled,  per¬ 
secuted,  defamed,  made  as  the  refuse  of  the  world, 
the  offscouring  of  all  things,”  and  yet  he  kept 
saying,  “Thanks  be  unto  God.”  It  is  not  easy 
to  be  grateful  when  life  is  stripped  bare  of  all 
the  things  which  make  the  human  heart  contented 
and  happy.  Paul  described  his  life  thus:  “Even 
unto  this  present  hour  we  both  hunger  and  thirst 
and  are  naked  and  are  buffeted,  and  have  no  cer¬ 
tain  dwelling  place,  and  we  toil,  working  with 
our  own  hands.”  But  his  heart  was  always  over¬ 
flowing  with  thanksgiving.  It  is  one  of  the  mir¬ 
acles  of  the  world,  that  the  people  to  whom  the 
least  has  been  given,  and  upon  whom  the  heaviest 
burdens  have  been  rolled,  are  often  the  most  ap¬ 
preciative  of  the  richness  of  life,  and  most  thank¬ 
ful  to  God  for  his  goodness. 

There  are  those  who  are  not  altogether  devoid 
of  grateful  feeling,  but  the  feeing  is  so  feeble, 
it  seldom  if  ever  expresses  itself  in  words.  In 
the  midst  of  mercies,  they  remain  dumb.  They 


HIS  THANKFULNESS  265 

excuse  themselves  from  saying,  “I  thank  you,” 
by  the  thought  that  words  are  easy  and  often 
empty,  and  that  gratitude  in  the  heart  is  all  that 
either  God  or  man  can  rightfully  expect.  But  out 
of  the  fulness  of  the  heart  the  mouth  speaks. 
When  the  heart  is  surcharged  with  thankfulness, 
the  tongue  cannot  remain  voiceless.  The  soul 
when  full  overflows,  and  the  overflow  passes  into 
speech.  Only  an  impoverished  and  feeble  grati¬ 
tude  ever  seeks  refuge  in  silence.  Paul  in  all 
places  and  at  all  times  gave  thanks. 

In  his  capacity  for  grateful  expression,  Paul 
is  the  brother  of  the  Psalmist  who  wrote,  “Bless 
the  Lord,  O  my  soul,  and  forget  not  all  his  bene¬ 
fits.”  The  spirit  of  thankfulness  in  Paul’s  heart 
was  always  reporting  itself  to  the  eyes  and  ears 
of  men.  It  was  something  which  could  not  be 
hidden.  Luke  could  not  write  a  history  of  the 
early  church  without  making  room  for  at  least 
a  few  incidents  illustrative  of  Paul’s  habit  of  re¬ 
turning  thanks.  Luke  does  not  deal  with  the  in¬ 
terior  life  of  his  friend.  It  is  his  purpose  simply 
to  sketch  his  outward  career.  His  volume  is  a 
book  of  “Acts,”  and  it  is  the  journeys  of  Paul 
from  country  to  country  which  he  sets  himself 
to  record.  But  there  were  three  public  occasions 
on  which  Paul’s  gratitude  expressed  itself  in  such 
a  dramatic  and  unforgetable  way,  that  Luke  could 
not  pass  them  by.  He  tells  us  that  when  Paul 
and  Silas  were  in  the  innermost  cell  in  the  Philip- 


266 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


pian  jail,  their  feet  made  fast  in  the  stocks,  at 
midnight  the  two  prisoners  began  to  sing  hymns 
of  praise  to  God.  They  had  been  deprived  of 
their  liberty,  their  backs  were  bleeding  from  the 
Roman  flogging,  they  were  in  great  discomfort, 
but  they  did  not  forget  God’s  goodness,  and  the 
feeling  of  thankfulness  was  so  full  that  it  poured 
itself  out  in  song.  Luke  tells  us  that  all  the  pris¬ 
oners  listened.  Through  1900  years,  prisoners 
in  many  parts  of  the  world  have  not  ceased  to 
listen — men  and  women  shut  up  in  the  cells  of 
worldliness,  held  tight  in  the  stocks  of  sin,  have 
given  wondering  attention  to  those  songs  in  the 
night.  The  Pauline  theology  has  often  fallen  on 
deaf  ears,  but  the  Pauline  song  of  praise  in  the 
night,  has  found  entrance  into  souls  who  have 
been  indifferent  to  doctrine.  And  thus  does  Paul 
speak  to  the  heart  of  mankind  both  in  his  tears 
and  in  his  songs. 

Luke  tells  us  of  another  scene  equally  dra¬ 
matic.  Paul  stands  on  the  deck  of  a  ship  wrecked 
on  an  unknown  coast.  It  is  not  daylight  yet,  and 
the  drenched  passengers  peer  into  the  darkness 
with  mingled  hope  and  fear.  For  fourteen  days 
they  have  been  driven  by  a  tempest  so  that  all 
appetite  had  been  taken  away.  Now  hungry  and 
weak,  they  shiver  in  the  cold  air  of  the  early 
morning.  Paul  summons  the  dispirited,  panic- 
striken  company  around  him,  speaks  words  of 
cheer,  and  then  calls  for  food  that  all  may  eat. 


HIS  THANKFULNESS 


267 


What  he  did  at  that  point  never  faded  from 
Luke’s  mind.  Before  Paul  broke  the  bread,  he 
gave  thanks  to  God  in  the  presence  of  all,  and 
having  done  this,  he  broke  it  and  began  to  eat. 
Following  his  example,  the  other  two  hundred 
and  seventy-five  fatigued  and  drooping  men  were 
revived  in  spirit,  and  also  ate.  In  the  chill  dawn 
of  a  cheerless  day,  with  nothing  but  human 
wretchedness  around  him,  and  a  clouded,  threat¬ 
ening  future  before  him,  Paul’s  heart  is  still  sing¬ 
ing  hymns  of  praise  to  God.  Before  he  puts  a 
piece  of  bread  to  his  mouth,  he  must  first  speak 
to  God  in  thanksgiving. 

Luke  never  forgot  how  deeply  moved  Paul 
was  at  the  sight  of  a  little  company  of  Roman 
Christians,  who  had  come  out  to  meet  him.  Some 
had  walked  thirty  miles  to  a  place  called  the 
Three  Taverns,  and  a  few  had  gone  even  ten 
miles  further,  to  the  Market  of  Appius,  to  greet 
the  Apostle  who  had  written  them  such  a  won¬ 
derful  letter.  When  Paul’s  eyes  fell  on  them, 
strangers  to  him  and  yet  so  hospitable  and  kind, 
his  heart  leaped,  and  the  feeling  of  gratitude 
within  him  rushed  to  his  lips,  and  found  expres¬ 
sion  in  words  which  Luke  has  not  recorded,  but 
which  made  an  ineffaceable  impression  on  his 
mind.  “He  thanked  God.”  The  sight  of  those 
Roman  Christians  walking  so  many  miles  to  wel¬ 
come  him,  refreshed  his  lonely  and  troubled  spirit, 
and  in  Luke’s  terse  phrase,  “he  took  courage.” 


268 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


The  cheering  looks  of  those  friendly  eyes  scat¬ 
tered  his  misgivings.  He  now  knew  that  hearts 
were  open  to  him  in  the  capital  of  the  world. 
“He  thanked  God.” 

But  it  is  in  his  letters  that  Paul’s  heart  is  most 
fully  disclosed.  It  is  here  that  we  see  that  in 
him  the  mood  of  gratitude  was  habitual.  Paul’s 
whole  life  was  drenched  in  thankfulness.  A 
strain  of  praise  was  flowing  through  him  all  the 
time,  and  it  bubbles  up  right  in  the  midst  of  his 
arguments  in  glowing  exclamations  and  fervent 
doxologies.  “Thanks  be  unto  God  who  giveth 
us  the  victory!”  “Thanks  be  unto  God  who  al¬ 
ways  causeth  us  to  triumph  in  Christ.”  “Thanks 
be  unto  God  who  has  inspired  Titus  with  an  in¬ 
terest  in  you  equal  to  our  own.”  “Thanks  be 
unto  God  for  his  unspeakable  gift.”  The  letters 
are  so  intimate  and  so  spontaneous,  so  familiar 
and  so  colloquial,  that  whatever  feeling  is  strong 
in  him,  spurts  up  into  view.  He  does  not  allow 
his  ideas  to  stand  in  the  way  of  his  feelings.  His 
intellect  is  not  permitted  to  suppress  or  shove 
aside  his  heart.  When  he  thinks  of  how  God  in 
Christ  has  forgiven  him,  he  rises  at  once  into  a 
d oxo logv — “Now  unto  the  King  Eternal,  immor¬ 
tal,  invisible,  the  only  God,  be  honor  and  glory 
forever  and  ever.”  At  the  conclusion  of  his  sur¬ 
vey  of  history,  with  God’s  purposes  and  methods 
unrolled  before  his  eyes,  he  suddenly  stops  and 
breaks  out  in  a  song  of  praise:  “O  the  depth  of 


HIS  THANKFULNESS 


269 


the  riches  both  of  the  wisdom  and  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  God!  Of  him  and  through  him  and 
unto  him  are  all  things.  To  him  be  the  glory 
forever.” 

Nearly  all  of  his  letters  open  with  a  burst  of 
thanksgiving.  He  has  always  something  to  be 
grateful  for.  If  nothing  is  immediately  obvious, 
he  seeks  for  it.  When  he  wrote  his  second  let¬ 
ter  to  the  Corinthians,  he  could  not  express  thanks 
for  their  spiritual  progress,  and  so  he  thanks 
God  for  the  suffering  which  they  have  caused 
him.  Along  with  the  suffering  has  come  com¬ 
fort  which  he  can  pass  on  to  others.  Because  his 
sufferings  have  been  so  great,  and  the  consolation 
which  has  come  to  him  has  been  so  wonderful, 
he  will  now  be  better  able  to  comfort  people  who 
are  in  any  distress  by  the  comfort  with  which  he 
himself  was  comforted  by  God. 

He  is  always  thanking  God  for  his  friends. 
He  is  grateful  for  the  grace  bestowed  upon  them, 
for  their  growth  in  spiritual  knowledge  and 
power,  for  their  faith  and  love,  for  their  re¬ 
membrance  of  him,  and  for  the  privilege  he  en¬ 
joys  of  making  mention  of  them  in  his  prayers. 
But  the  chief  cause  of  his  gratitude  to  God,  is 
the  revelation  of  God’s  mind  and  heart  in  Jesus 
Christ,  and  for  the  forgiveness  which  has  come 
to  men  through  him.  All  of  his  gratitude  is 
rolled  up  in  the  one  exclamation — “Thanks  be 
unto  God  for  his  unspeakable  gift!” 


270 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


Paul  was  grateful  also  to  men.  He  never  for¬ 
got  a  favor,  never  lost  sight  of  a  person  who  had 
helped  him.  There  were  two  women  in  Philippi 
who  had  been  especially  courageous  and  self-sac¬ 
rificing  in  forwarding  his  work.  In  Rome  he 
thinks  of  them,  and  of  all  they  did,  and  in  his 
letter  to  the  Philippian  Church  he  mentions  them 
by  name,  and  urges  one  of  his  friends  to  lend 
them  a  hand.  When  he  writes  the  word,  “fel¬ 
low-workers,”  it  carries  along  with  it  the  fra¬ 
grance  of  gratitude.  When  he  sends  greetings  to 
various  converts  in  far-away  cities,  he  often  adds 
— “He  helped  me,”  “She  worked  for  us,”  “They 
risked  their  necks  for  my  life.”  His  prayers  are 
filled  with  the  names  of  people  whom  he  carries 
gratefully  to  God. 

The  Church  in  Philippi  was  especially  dear  to 
him.  More  than  once  it  had  shown  in  beautiful 
ways  its  devotion  to  him.  Of  all  his  letters, 
none  is  so  cheerful  and  affectionate  as  his  letter 
to  this  Church.  It  is  filled  with  the  aroma  of 
thankfulness.  This  is  the  way  it  begins :  “I  thank 
my  God  for  all  your  remembrance  of  me:  in  all 
my  prayers  for  you  all,  I  always  pray  with  a 
sense  of  joy  for  what  you  have  contributed  to  the 
Gospel  from  the  very  first  day  down  to  this  mo¬ 
ment.  It  is  only  natural  for  me  to  be  thinking 
of  you  all  in  this  way,  for  alike  in  my  prison, 
and  as  I  defend  and  vindicate  the  Gospel,  I  bear 
in  mind  how  you  all  share  with  me  in  the  grace 


HIS  THANKFULNESS 


271 


divine.  God  is  my  witness  that  I  yearn  for  you 
all  with  the  affection  of  Christ  Jesus  himself.” 
His  acceptance  of  their  last  gift  which  has  just 
arrived,  is  most  charming.  His  gratitude  over¬ 
flows  into  sentences  of  rare  beauty.  He  calls 
their  gift  a  fragrant  perfume,  the  sort  of  sacri¬ 
fice  which  gives  pleasure  to  God.  His  feeling 
rises  as  he  meditates  on  their  kindness,  and  he 
closes  with  a  doxology — “Glory  to  God  our 
Father  forever  and  ever:  Amen.” 

There  was  a  man  named  Onesiphorus  who  be¬ 
cause  of  his  attentions  to  Paul,  has  been  immor¬ 
talized  in  the  second  letter  to  Timothy.  At  the 
time  the  letter  was  written,  the  man  himself  was 
dead,  but  his  wife  and  children  were  living,  and 
Paul  invokes  the  divine  blessing  on  them  all. 
He  meditates  on  the  various  times  when  Onesi¬ 
phorus  had  cheered  up  his  spirit  by  coming  to  see 
him  in  Rome.  He  had  had  a  hard  time  finding 
Paul,  but  he  did  not  give  up  the  search  until  he 
had  discovered  where  he  was.  He  was  not 
ashamed  to  come  to  see  him,  even  though  Paul 
was  a  prisoner  of  the  Roman  Government,  and 
every  time  he  came,  he  refreshed  Paul’s  heart. 
Onesiphorus  is  now  in  the  other  world,  but  Paul’s 
thoughts  follow  him  there,  and  because  he  cannot 
express  to  him  what  he  feels,  he  speaks  to  God 
about  him,  and  also  about  his  entire  family. 

Near  the  beginning  of  the  letter,  Paul  refers 
to  the  people  who  have  cast  him  off  because  of 


272 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


his  chains,  and  this  recalls  the  friendly  face  of 
faithful  Onesiphorus,  who  in  spite  of  the  chains 
remained  his  friend,  giving  him  support  in  Rome 
as  he  had  done  in  Ephesus  years  before.  On  the 
last  page  of  the  letter,  Paul  thinks  of  Alexander 
and  others  who  had  done  their  utmost  against 
him.  He  says  that  at  his  first  trial,  he  had  to 
defend  himself,  for  he  had  no  supporters.  Every 
one  deserted  him.  But  there  were  still  on  the 
face  of  the  earth  hearts  which  were  loyal  and  true, 
and  to  the  foremost  of  these  he  will  send  his 
affectionate  greetings.  Before  he  pens  his  final 
benediction,  he  writes  this:  “Salute  Prisca  and 
Aquila,  and  the  household  of  Onesiphorus.  Sa¬ 
lute  the  man  and  the  woman  who  took  me  into 
their  own  home,  and  by  whose  side  I  often  worked 
in  earning  my  bread,  and  who  in  time  of  danger 
risked  their  own  lives  for  my  sake,  and  remember 
me  also  to  the  wife  and  children  of  the  man  who 
stood  by  my  side  when  I  fought  with  beasts  in 
Ephesus,  and  who  when  I  was  a  prisoner  in 
Rome,  did  not  turn  away  from  me,  but  befriended 
me,  and  stood  by  me  to  the  end  of  his  life.”  It 
is  worthy  of  note  that,  in  the  last  paragraph  of 
the  last  of  Paul’s  letters,  we  have  a  rich  reminder 
of  a  gratitude  which  never  failed. 

Paul’s  exhortations  to  thanksgiving  take  on  a 
heightened  glory,  when  they  are  read  in  the  light 
of  his  own  character.  To  the  Philippians,  he 
says— -“Make  your  requests  known  to  God  in 


HIS  THANKFULNESS 


273 


prayer  and  supplication  with  thanksgiving.”  He 
writes  to  the  Ephesians — “Render  thanks  to  God 
the  Father  in  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
at  all  times  and  for  all  things.”  To  the  Colos- 
sians,  he  says — “Whatever  you  say  or  do,  let 
everything  be  done  in  dependence  on  the  Lord 
Jesus,  giving  thanks  in  his  name  to  God  the 
Father.”  One  of  the  most  suggestive  of  all  his 
exhortations  occurs  near  the  end  of  his  letter  to 
the  Colossians:  “Maintain  your  zest  for  prayer 
by  thanksgiving.”  The  spirit  of  gratitude  is  one 
of  the  mightiest  of  all  spirits.  It  helps  one  to 
be  courageous  and  also  to  endure.  It  makes  it 
easier  to  work  and  also  to  pray. 


XX 


HIS  JOYFULNESS 


XX 


HIS  JOYFULNESS 

The  letters  of  Paul  are  full  of  distressing 
facts,  but  they  do  not  depress  the  reader.  Paul 
was  a  man  of  sorrows  and  acquainted  with  grief. 
His  career  was  not  roughened  by  an  occasional 
hardship,  it  was  a  continuous  tragedy.  Paul  ex¬ 
perienced  nearly  all  the  sorrows  which  a  mortal 
can  know.  Misunderstanding,  misrepresentation, 
indifference,  ingratitude,  calumny,  slander,  suspi¬ 
cion,  hatred,  scorn,  loneliness,  hunger,  toil,  pov¬ 
erty,  weariness,  sickness,  vituperations  as  a  rene¬ 
gade,  a  traitor,  an  enemy  of  society,  and  a  blas¬ 
phemer,  imprisonment,  scourging,  and  threats  of 
death;  all  this  and  more  he  was  called  upon  to 
endure.  A  brief  resume  of  his  sufferings  is 
found  in  his  second  letter  to  the  Corinthians. 
That  was  written  probably  twelve  years  before 
his  death.  The  last  twelve  years  of  his  life  were 
no  easier  than  the  twelve  years  which  preceded 
them.  Luke  tells  us  of  a  shipwreck,  and  of  two 
imprisonments,  each  of  two1  years’  duration,  after 
the  letter  to  the  Corinthians  was  written,  but  Luke 
was  not  in  the  habit  of  dwelling  upon  his  friend’s 

277 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


'278 

hardships,  and  we  cannot  consider  his  narrative 
at  all  complete.  Paul  says  he  was  scourged  five 
times  in  Jewish  Synagogues,  but  Luke  does  not 
mention  any  of  them.  He  says  he  was  flogged 
three  times  by  the  Romans,  but  Luke  mentions 
only  one.  He  says  he  was  shipwrecked  three 
times,  but  Luke  passes  over  these  three  in  silence. 
Probably  not  the  half  of  Paul’s  hardships  are 
referred  to  in  the  New  Testament,  but  enough 
of  them  are  recorded  to  appall  the  heart. 

One  cannot  read  the  letters  without  knowing 
that  Paul’s  suffering  was  immense.  He  makes 
no  effort  to  cover  it  over.  He  speaks  of  his  trib¬ 
ulations  with  great  freedom.  He  has  not  the 
slightest  hesitation  in  speaking  about  himself,  and 
he  brings  his  sufferings  boldly  to  the  front.  We 
find  him  in  his  old  age  calling  to  mind  the  perse¬ 
cutions  of  his  earlier  ministry,  the  hard  things 
which  befell  him  at  Antioch,  at  Iconium,  at  Lys- 
tra,  and  it  evidently  comforts  him  to  know  that 
Timothy  is  familiar  with  the  whole  distressful 
story.  Paul  is  not  reticent  about  his  sufferings. 
They  are  a  conspicuous  and  essential  part  of  his 
life. 

But  the  recital  of  his  hardships  does  not  make 
us  gloomy.  When  we  are  most  depressed,  we 
turn  to  his  letters.  They  cheer  us  up  in  our 
most  doleful  moods,  we  are  helped  by  what  he 
went  through.  His  letters  kindle  a  light  in  the 
darkness.  We  drink  strength  by  drawing  near 


HIS  JOYFULNESS 


279 


to  his  suffering  heart.  We  grow  more  cheerful 
by  meditating  on  the  tragedy  of  his  life.  It  is 
not  dismal  events  in  the  lives  of  others  which 
depress  us  so  much  as  the  spirit  in  which  those 
events  are  met.  If  the  soul  of  the  sufferer  is 
broken  down  into  lugubrious  helplessness  or  wail¬ 
ing  despair,  our  own  heart  is  dragged  down  into 
the  pit.  But  the  soul  which  can  suffer  victo¬ 
riously  is  the  soul  which  floods  the  heavens  with 
light.  In  his  sufferings,  Paul  was  a  supercon¬ 
queror.  He  never  moans,  whines  or  murmurs. 
He  never  grumbles  or  groans.  He  never  sobs  or 
sighs.  He  has  no  tears  for  his  own  afflictions, 
only  for  the  afflictions  of  others.  He  wants  us  to 
know  of  his  sufferings,  but  it  is  not  that  we  may 
cry  over  them.  He  desires  to  increase  our  cour¬ 
age  and  deepen  our  joy.  When  he  says  to  the 
Colossians — “Remember  my  bonds,”  he  is  not 
saying — “Please  weep  over  my  misfortune.”  He 
is  only  saying — “If  you  remember  I  have  a 
chain  around  my  wrists,  you  will  excuse  my  bad 
writing.” 

He  uses  his  sufferings  as  an  incentive  to  heroic 
endurance.  “Look  at  me,”  he  was  always  say¬ 
ing,  “do  not  think  that  your  experience  is  excep¬ 
tional.  Your  fate  is  the  common  fate  of  all  who 
desire  to  live  as  Jesus  lived.  See  what  I  have 
suffered.  No  man  can  enter  the  kingdom  of  God 
without  suffering.  All  who  want  to  live  the  re¬ 
ligious  life  in  Christ  will  be  persecuted.”  Like 


28o 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


Jesus,  Paul  did  not  gloss  somber  facts.  He  did 
not  blink  the  thorny  side  of  life.  He  had  worn 
a  crown  of  thorns  himself,  and  he  knew  that  oth¬ 
ers  must  wear  it  too.  He  had  tasted  of  a  bitter 
cup,  and  he  knew  that  it  was  not  for  his  lips 
alone.  His  sufferings  do  not  depress  us,  because 
he  was  not  conquered  by  them.  His  letters  give 
us  strength  and  cheer  because  they  come  out  of  a 
triumphant  heart.  They  are  so  pervaded  by  the 
spirit  of  joy,  that  our  own  heart  catches  it,  and 
we  become  joyful  too.  He  was  Paul  the  uncon¬ 
quered  and  the  unconquerable.  The  secret  of  his 
joy  is  always  escaping  him  in  such  exclamations 
as  these:  “Thanks  be  unto  God  who  giveth  us 
the  victory.”  “Thanks  be  unto  God  who  always 
leads  us  in  triumph!”  “I  am  not  ashamed  of  the 
Gospel  for  it  is  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation 
to  every  one  who  believes.”  Rome  was  a  city  that 
appreciated  conquering  power.  She  was  a  city  of 
triumphal  arches.  All  the  conquering  heroes 
made  their  way  to  the  Capitol.  Paul  was  eager 
to  go  to  a  city  like  that,  because  he  too  was  a  con¬ 
queror  and  had  a  message  which  would  make  it 
possible  for  every  man  to  conquer. 

He  had  met  so  many  foes  and  vanquished  them, 
that  his  language  at  times  seems  almost  boastful. 
“I  take  pleasure  in  weaknesses,  in  injuries,  and 
necessities,  in  persecutions,  in  distresses  for 
Christ’s  sake;  for  when  I  am  weak  then  I  am 
strong.”  “I  can  do  all  things  in  Him  that 


HIS  JOYFULNESS 


281 


strengtheneth  me.”  Whenever  we  are  in  Paul’s 
presence,  we  hear  the  sound  of  the  trumpets. 
Many  men  play  on  flutes.  Paul  blows  a  blast 
which  makes  us  forget  the  weary  marches  and 
the  bleeding  wounds,  and  fills  us  with  dreams  of 
victory. 

And  so  while  he  is  sorrowful,  he  is  always  re¬ 
joicing.  In  the  outer  courts  of  his  soul  there  is 
often  pain  and  sometimes  agony,  but  in  the  inner 
court  there  is  always  the  sound  of  music  and 
dancing.  Underneath  the  surface  of  his  letters 
there  runs  a  strain  of  deep  and  solemn  gladness. 
Again  and  again  it  is  hidden  from  the  eye  and 
ear,  but  it  keeps  breaking  through.  The  twenty- 
third  Psalm  was  written  in  his  heart  and  his  cup 
was  always  running  over. 

He  had  access  to  none  of  the  springs  of  happi¬ 
ness  which  the  crowd  is  always  seeking.  Silver 
and  gold  had  he  none,  and  yet  his  heart  was 
sunny.  He  had  neither  wife  nor  children,  and  yet 
he  could  be  happy  without  a  home.  He  had  no 
remunerative  or  honored  position,  but  wherever 
he  went  he  carried  a  cheerful  spirit.  The  ap¬ 
plause  of  the  multitude  was  never  in  his  ear,  and 
the  golden  opinions  of  those  who  make  public 
sentiment  never  came  to  him,  but  he  went  on  his 
lonely  way  with  a  heart  which  sang. 

He  drank  at  the  deep  springs.  He  knew  the 
joy  which  wells  up  in  a  thankful  heart.  Grati¬ 
tude  is  one  of  the  most  sparkling  of  all  the  emo- 


282 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


tions.  A  thankful  man  cannot  easily  be  gloomy. 
One  cannot  return  thanks  with  a  wry  face.  When 
the  lips  say,  “I  thank  you,”  the  eyes  instinctively 
smile.  Paul  was  blithe,  because  he  was  habit¬ 
ually  thankful.  Joy  and  thanksgiving  are  never 
far  removed  from  each  other.  “Rejoice  at  all 
times,  never  give  up  prayer,  thank  God  for  every¬ 
thing” — -so  he  writes  to  the  Thessalonians,  thus 
putting  thanksgiving,  prayer  and  joy  together. 

He  knew  the  joy  of  hope.  Hope  always  wears 
a  radiant  face.  He  stood  on  tiptoe,  expectant. 
He  knew  that  better  things  lay  ahead.  He  was 
always  watching  the  horizon.  Things  present  and 
also  things  to  come  belonged  to  him.  There  are 
bitter  experiences,  to  be  sure,  but  we  must  not  be 
prostrated  by  them.  “Our  light  affliction,  which 
is  only  for  the  moment,  is  working  for  us  more 
and  more  exceedingly  an  eternal  weight  of  glory.” 
He  admits  us  into  one  of  the  secrets  of  his  life, 
when  he  writes  to  the  Romans,  “Let  your  hope 
be  a  joy  to  you.” 

He  knew  the  joy  of  memory.  He  treasured 
the  years  which  are  gone.  He  was  always  think¬ 
ing  backward.  He  loved  the  history  of  his  peo¬ 
ple.  Their  experiences  were  food  for  his  mind. 
He  had  no  property  except  a  few  books- — -books 
containing  the  story  of  his  nation,  and  the  words 
of  its  most  illustrous  teachers.  He  could  not 
easily  get  on  without  his  books.  “Bring  my 
books,”  he  wrote  to  Timothy,  “and  my  old  coat.” 


HIS  JOYFULNESS 


283 


The  coat  would  warm  his  body,  and  the  books 
would  warm  his  mind.  A  man  is  never  altogether 
wretched  so  long  as  he  retains  the  pleasure  of 
reading.  He  often  went  back  to  the  beginning 
of  his  own  life,  and  he  never  grew  weary  of  think¬ 
ing  about  the  amazing  experience  which  came  to 
him  near  the  City  of  Damascus.  Every  time  he 
thought  of  it,  a  new  gush  of  joy  flooded  his 
heart.  He  urged  others  to  remember  their  past. 
“Remember,”  he  wrote  to  the  Ephesians,  “the 
time  when  you  had  no  hope  and  were  without  God 
in  the  world,  and  now  you  who  were  once  far  off 
are  made  nigh  in  the  blood  of  Christ.”  It  was 
by  his  use  of  the  past,  that  he  fed  his  thankful¬ 
ness,  and  by  his  thankfulness  he  increased  the 
volume  of  his  joy. 

He  experienced  to  the  full  the  joy  of  friend¬ 
ship.  He  had  many  foes,  but  he  also  had  many 
friends.  His  foes  hated  him  intensely,  but  his 
friends  loved  him  devotedly.  He  never  writes 
with  more  glee  than  when  he  is  pouring  out  his 
love  on  his  friends.  “Who  is  our  hope,  our  joy, 
our  crown  of  pride?”  he  writes  to  the  Thessa- 
lonians.  “Why,  you  are  our  glory  and  joy.” 
To  the  Philippians  his  language  is  no  less  exu¬ 
berant:  “My  brothers  for  whom  I  cherish  love 
and  longing,  my  joy  and  crown,  stand  firm  in 
the  Lord,  O  my  dear  ones!”  To  Timothy  he 
writes :  “I  long  by  night  and  day  to  see  you 
again.  That  would  fill  me  with  joy.”  The  hap- 


284 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


piness  of  his  friends  made  him  happy.  He  ex¬ 
ulted  in  their  good  fortune.  He  gloried  in  their 
progress.  He  rejoiced  in  all  their  rejoicings.  “I 
was  especially  delighted,”  he  writes  to  the  Cor¬ 
inthians,  “over  the  delight  of  Titus,  because  you 
have  set  his  mind  at  rest.  I  told  him  of  my  pride 
in  you,  and  I  have  not  been  disappointed.”  What 
fuller  fountain  of  joy  is  there  in  all  the  world 
than  just  the  joy  of  loving?  The  joy  of  grati¬ 
tude,  and  the  joy  of  anticipation,  and  the  joy  of 
remembering,  and  the  joy  of  loving!  No  man 
has  a  right  to  be  wretched  who  possesses  all  these. 

He  feasted  on  the  joy  of  helping  others.  No 
matter  how  vexatious  their  conduct,  they  could 
never  quite  extinguish  his  happiness.  He  ex¬ 
tracted  fresh  happiness  out  of  his  redoubled  ef¬ 
forts  to  help  them.  The  Corinthians  sorely  tried 
his  patience,  but  this  is  what  he  wrote  to  them : 
“You  are  in  my  heart,  and  you  will  be  there  in 
death  and  life  alike.  I  have  absolute  confidence 
in  you.  I  am  indeed  proud  of  you.  You  are  a 
perfect  comfort  to  me.  I  am  overflowing  with 
joy  for  all  the  trouble  I  have  to  bear.”  A  man 
with  such  a  disposition,  can  never  be  cheated  out 
of  a  happy  life.  When  his  converts  were  faithful 
and  made  progress,  his  delight  knew  no  bounds. 
“It  is  life  to  me  now,”  so  he  writes  to  the  Thessa- 
loneans,  “if  you  stand  firm  in  the  Lord!  How 
can  I  render  thanks  enough  to  God  for  you,  for 
all  the  joy  you  make  me  feel  in  the  presence  of 


HIS  JOYFULNESS 


285 


our  God.”  To  the  Corinthians  he  writes — “Do 
not  imagine  I  want  to  lord  it  over  you — I  am 
simply  a  helper  of  your  joy.” 

He  possessed  the  joy  of  feeling  that  he  was 
Working  with  God.  God  has  far-reaching  plans, 
and  Paul  is  helping  him  to  carry  them  out.  When 
he  suffers  he  still  is  joyful  because  his  sufferings, 
like  the  sufferings  of  Jesus,  are  helping  to  work 
out  the  purposes  of  the  Eternal.  When  he  medi¬ 
tates  on  this,  he  rises  at  times  into  rapture.  He 
.becomes  so  joyful  that  he  cannot  tell  whether  he 
is  in  the  body  or  out  of  it.  All  that  he  is  sure  of 
is  that  he  has  been  in  Paradise,  and  has  heard 
secrets  which  no  human  lips  can  repeat.  There 
are  experiences  so  intimate  and  sacred  that  to  talk 
about  them  is  a  desecration.  What  pitch  of  bless¬ 
edness  Paul  reached  at  the  top  of  his  highest 
ascent  into  the  heavens  of  joy  we  cannot  know. 
He  could  not  tell,  and  if  he  had  told,  we  could 
not  understand.  In  its  deepest  agonies  and  in  its 
loftiest  ecstacies,  the  soul  is  ever  alone. 

He  knew  the  joy  of  victory.  He  conquered 
every  form  of  bodily  opposition,  and  every  form 
of  mental  suffering  too.  When  he  gazes  into  the 
valley  of  the  shadow,  he  shouts — “O  death  where 
is  thy  sting — O  grave  where  is  thy  victory?”  It 
makes  no  difference  to  him  whether  he  lives  or 
dies,  because  he  has  put  death  under  his  feet. 
He  goes  on  at  last  through  the  gates  of  death, 
with  a  shout  of  triumph — “I  have  fought  the 


286 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


good  fight,  I  have  finished  the  course,  I  have  kept 
the  faith,  and  henceforth  there  is  laid  up  for  me 
the  crown !” 

It  is  because  of  his  ripe  experience  with  the 
emotion  of  joy,  that  he  dwells  on  it  with  such 
stress  in  his  letters.  He  says  that  “the  Kingdom 
of  God  is  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy.”  He 
declares  that  the  first  two  fruits  of  the  spirit  are 
love  and  joy.  Where  love  is,  joy  must  follow. 
A  joyless  life  in  Christ  is  to  him  inconceivable. 
Human  life  is  not  complete  until  it  is  crowned 
with  joy.  A  gloomy  heart  is  a  heart  displeasing 
to  God.  God  loves  a  cheerful  giver.  A  grumb¬ 
ling  heart  takes  away  the  beauty  of  a  beneficient 
act.  If  you  are  going  to  show  mercy,  then  do  it 
with  cheerfulness.  Men  and  women  in  trouble 
are  not  helped  by  people  with  sour  hearts  or 
long  faces.  Would  you  lift  a  man  up,  then  be 
joyful. 

How  to  be  happy  is  one  of  the  haunting  prob¬ 
lems  of  mankind.  Ours  is  a  doleful  world,  and 
after  centuries  of  experimentation,  it  must  be 
confessed  that  mankind  has  not  yet  learned  the 
secret  of  a  joyous  life.  It  is  sometimes  ques¬ 
tioned  whether  one  has  a  right  to  be  happy  in  a 
world  so  full  of  misery.  For  the  average  mortal, 
joys  are  few  and  fleeting.  We  have  occasional 
glorious  hours,  but  they  are  like  islands  in  an 
ocean  on  which  the  sun  falls  faintly.  Joyfulness 
belongs,  we  conclude,  to  the  angels.  It  is  an  ex- 


HIS  JOYFULNESS  287 

perience  which  can  be  known  by  the  fortunate 
only  in  some  future  world. 

But  here  is  a  man  who  knew  how  to  be  happy. 
He  lived  in  a  generation  far  more  miserable  and 
corrupt  than  our  own.  Poverty  and  suffering, 
injustice  and  cruelty,  vice  and  brutality  abounded 
on  every  side,  but  all  this  did  not  extinguish  his 
joy.  He  died  daily,  but  this  continuous  crucifix¬ 
ion  did  not  silence  the  hallelujah  in  his  heart.  He 
walked  through  a  world  on  which  a  deep  gloom 
had  fallen,  but  on  his  face  there  rested  a  light 
which  the  powers  of  darkness  could  not  quench. 
Many  men  grow  melancholy  with  the  advancing 
years.  Many  a  brave  worker  tired  out  by  his 
labors  crawls  under  a  juniper  tree  at  last.  Paul 
in  his  old  age  sees  still  worse  times  ahead  of  the 
world,  but  the  cheeriest  of  all  his  letters  was  writ¬ 
ten  in  prison  in  Rome.  His  letter  to  the  Philip- 
pians  has  joy  for  its  keynote.  He  begins  by  tell¬ 
ing  his  friends  what  a  sense  of  joy  he  feels  when 
he  mentions  them  in  his  prayers.  He  is  a  pris¬ 
oner  in  chains,  but  this  after  all  is  not  so  bad. 
Even  his  chains  are  giving  the  gospel  message  a 
new  liberty  so  that  it  has  penetrated  even  the  pal¬ 
ace  of  the  Caesars,  There  are  men  preaching  a 
garbled  Gospel  in  a  wrong  spirit,  but  even  this  is 
not  disheartening,  for  in  this  way  the  name  of 
Christ  is  becoming  better  known.  It  may  be  that 
he  must  soon  die,  but  this  is  no  cause  for  gloom. 
^“Even  if  my  life  blood  has  to  be  poured  as  a  liba- 


288 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


tion  on  the  sacred  sacrifice  of  faith  you  are  offer¬ 
ing  to  God,  I  rejoice,  I  congratulate  you  all,  and 
you  in  turn  must  rejoice  and  congratulate  me.” 
After  a  word  of  praise  for  Timothy  and  Epa- 
phroditus,  he  urges  his  readers  to  rejoice.  He 
says  it  does  not  tire  him  to  write  the  word,  and 
it  is  a  good  thing  for  them  to  have  him  write  it 
again  and  again.  He  says  he  does  not  forget 
what  wicked  men  are  doing  and  saying,  but  that 
they  should  not  fail  to  remember  that  they  them¬ 
selves  are  a  colony  of  heaven,  and  are  waiting 
for  the  Savior  who  is  going  to  transform  the  body 
they  now  have  till  it  resembles  the  body  of  his 
glory.  He  next  refers  to  some  unpleasant  dif¬ 
ferences  which  have  arisen  between  two  of  their 
chief  workers,  but  he  will  not  forget  the  valiant 
service  they  rendered  in  former  years,  nor  will 
he  doubt  that  their  names  are  written  in  the  book 
of  life.  And  thus  does  he  sum  up  his  letter  with 
— '‘Rejoice  in  the  Lord  all  the  time.  Let  me  say 
it  again,  rejoice.” 

It  seems  strange  that  this  man  so  full  of  nerves, 
so  buffeted  and  trampled  on  by  the  world  which 
he  longed  to  help,  could  be  so  happy.  He  had  a 
deep  sense  of  sin.  He  could  paint  its  heinous¬ 
ness  in  colors  which  do  not  fade.  He  knew  the 
power  of  it,  and  the  guilt  of  it,  and  the  extent 
of  it,  but  this  did  not  make  him  glum.  He  was  a 
puritan,  a  zealot  for  holiness,  but  he  was  not 
grim.  He  was  a  reformer.  He  tried  to  refash- 


HIS  JOYFULNESS 


289 


ion  the  world’s  life  and  was  defeated,  but  he  did 
not  talk  in  a  plaintive  or  pathetic  tone.  He  was 
a  saint,  living  for  God,  but  his  voice  was  not 
lachrymose,  nor  were  his  eyes  filled  with  shad¬ 
ows.  He  was  so  full  of  joy  that  even  in  jail  in  a 
foreign  land,  when  he  was  too  miserable  to  sleep, 
he  could  break  into  song. 

We  need  this  man.  The  world  will  always 
need  him.  We  need  his  ideas,  but  we  need  still 
more  his  moods.  We  need  some  one  to  make  and 
keep  us  glad.  We  need  the  tonic  of  a  heart  which 
laughs.  We  need  by  our  side  a  man  who  has  in 
him  the  bracing  joy  of  victory. 

“Be  of  good  cheer,”  SO'  said  the  Son  of  God  to 
a  company  of  disheartened  men,  and  the  reason 
he  gave  for  their  being  cheerful  was — “I  have 
overcome  the  world.”  The  world  had  done  its 
utmost  to  crush  him,  and  had  failed.  Evil  in 
every  form  had  assaulted  him,  and  in  vain.  “Be 
of  good  cheer,”  he  said,  “for  I  have  shown  you 
that  even  in  a  world  like  this,  victory  can  be  won. 
I  have  overcome  the  world,  and  therefore  you 
can  overcome  it  too.” 

It  hardly  seemed  possible.  And  lo !  out  of  the 
ranks  of  our  common  humanity,  there  comes  a 
man  with  all  the  marks  of  our  frailties  and  im¬ 
perfections  stamped  visibly  upon  him,  and  by  the 
inspiration  of  the  Son  of  God,  that  man  also 
conquers.  Jesus  was  a  man  of  joy.  His  ambi¬ 
tion  was  to  have  his  joy  abide  in  his  disciples, 


290 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


and  that  their  joy  might  be  made  full.  He  as¬ 
sured  them  that  if  they  once  got  it,  no  one  could 
take  it  away.  Like  his  Master,  Paul  overcame  the 
world.  The  world  could  not  make  him  despon¬ 
dent  or  bitter  or  hopeless.  He  entered  into  the 
joy  of  his  Lord. 


XXI 

HIS  TRUSTFULNESS 


XXI 


HIS  TRUSTFULNESS 

By  his  trustfulness  I  mean  his  faith.  The 
word  “Faith”  has  been  spoiled  by  the  theologians. 
They  have  discussed  it  so  much  that  nobody 
knows  what  it  is.  They  have  defined  it  so  often 
that  the  mind  is  hopelessly  confused.  They  have 
analyzed  it  so  thoroughly,  that  its  meaning  has 
been  lost  in  the  process.  So  many  different  kinds 
of  faith  have  been  tabulated,  that  one  becomes 
bewildered  in  trying  to  distinguish  them.  Our 
fathers  were  so  solemnly  urged  to  secure  a  “sav¬ 
ing”  faith,  that  they  were  constantly  tormented 
by  the  fear  of  possessing  some  inferior  kind. 
They  tried  to  get  their  faith  under  their  eye  that 
they  might  scrutinize  it  and  dissect  it  and  clas¬ 
sify  it,  but  it  provokingly  eluded  them. 

Faith  cannot  be  defined.  One  may  call  it  a 
force  or  a  power,  a  belief  or  a  principle,  a  confi¬ 
dence  or  a  reliance,  a  divine  fire  or  an  enthusiasm, 
a  giving  substance  to  things  hoped  for,  a  test 
of  things  not  seen,  but  nothing  is  gained  by  the 
definition.  Neither  Jesus  nor  any  of  the  twelve 
ever  attempted  to  define  it.  The  only  writer  in 

293 


294 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


the  New  Testament  who  makes  an  effort  to  do  it, 
is  the  writer  of  the  Letter  to  the  Hebrews,  and 
after  two  attempts  he  gives  it  up,  and  proceeds  to 
show  what  faith  is  by  telling  what  it  does.  The 
only  way  in  which  we  can  know  what  faith  is, 
is  to  come  in  contact  with  it  in  others,  or  have  it 
in  ourself.  We  have  often  been  helped  by  look¬ 
ing  at  the  heroes  of  faith  enrolled  in  the  Letter 
to  the  Hebrews.  It  will  help  us  still  more  to  find 
how  faith  worked  in  the  great  soul  of  Paul.  Paul 
was  incarnate  faith  in  action. 

We  are  especially  eager  to  study  his  faith,  be¬ 
cause  Paul  is  known  the  world  over  as  the  “Apos¬ 
tle  of  Faith.”  He  is  its  most  illustrious  cham¬ 
pion.  It  was  a  word  which  he  loved,  and  it  was 
always  on  his  lips  and  pen ;  but  strange  to  say,  he 
has  nothing  to  tell  us  of  his  own  faith.  He  never 
refers  to  it.  He  asks  his  readers  to  remember 
his  industry,  his  patience,  his  unselfishness,  his 
longsufifering,  his  fidelity,  his  sacrifice,  but  he 
never  asks  them  to  remember  his  faith.  “We 
walk  by  faith,”  was  one  of  his  favorite  sayings, 
and,  therefore,  to  see  his  faith  we  must  observe 
the  way  he  walked.  He  walked  as  Jesus  walked. 
That  was  what  his  faith  enabled  him  to  do. 

His  favorite  hero  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures 
was  Abraham.  Abraham  had  opened  a  new  era 
in  the  history  of  the  Hebrew  people,  and  indeed 
of  the  human  race.  He  was  the  father  of  the 
Hebrew  nation,  and  also  of  all  other  men  who 


HIS  TRUSTFULNESS 


295 


wish  to  live  as  God  intends  them  to  live.  The 
secret  of  Abraham’s  life  could  be  told  in  a  single 
sentence — “He  trusted  God.”  He  trusted  him  in 
spite  of  appearances.  He  trusted  him  in  the 
dark.  “He  went  out  not  knowing  whither  he 
was  going.”  “He  wavered  not  through  unbelief, 
but  waxed  strong  through  faith.”  And  it  is  in 
the  steps  of  that  faith  of  Abraham,  that  all  men 
ought  to  walk.  So  Paul  wrote  to  the  Romans. 

Abraham  believed  that  God  is,  and  so  did  Paul. 
That  was  Paul’s  deepest  conviction.  That  belief 
was  woven  into  the  fiber  of  his  mind,  into  the 
texture  of  his  heart.  “From  him  and  through 
him  and  to  him  are  all  things.”  “There  is  one 
God  and  Father  of  all,  who  is  over  all,  and 
through  all,  and  in  all.”  “To  us  there  is  one 
God,  the  Father,  from  whom  are  all  things  and  we 
unto  him.”  Abraham  believed  that  God  is  right¬ 
eous.  So  did  Paul.  Paul  was  sure  that  the 
Judge  of  all  the  earth  will  always  do  right.  The 
Eternal  Goodness  was  a  rock  on  which  he  built. 
The  apparent  contradictions  of  this  in  human  ex¬ 
perience,  he  swept  indignantly  away.  “Let  God 
be  found  true,  but  every  man  a  liar.” 

God  had  made  a  promise  to  the  Hebrew  peo¬ 
ple,  and  that  promise  had  been  fulfilled  in  Jesus. 
Jesus  was  the  Messiah.  In  him  dwelt  all  the  full¬ 
ness  of  the  Godhead.  God  was  in  him  reconcil¬ 
ing  the  world  to  himself.  Of  this  Paul  was  cer¬ 
tain.  God  is  the  Father  of  Jesus  Christ.  God  is 


296 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


like  Jesus.  Therefore  God  is  our  loving  helper 
and  friend. 

Because  Paul  is  sure  of  God  in  Christ,  he  is 
certain  of  victory.  Man  can  be  delivered  from 
his  sins.  He  does  not  fight  a  losing  battle.  He 
can  be  freed  from  the  sense  of  guilt.  “There  is 
therefore  now  no  condemnation  to  them  that  are 
in  Christ  Jesus.”  He  knows  this  from  his  own 
experience. 

And  victory  in  prayer  is  also  assured.  The 
old  fears  are  taken  out  of  the  heart.  Men  no 
longer  pray  as  slaves  but  as  children.  They  call 
God  “Father,”  and  God’s  spirit  in  their  own 
hearts  bears  witness  to  the  fact  that  they  are  in¬ 
deed  his  children,  and  if  children  they  are  heirs, 
and  if  heirs,  they  are  joint  heirs  with  Christ,  and 
whatever  Christ  inherits,  they  will  share  with 
him.  They  do  not  know  how  to  pray  as  they 
ought,  but  God’s  spirit  gives  them  the  necessary 
assistance.  Paul  knows  this  also  from  his  own 
experience. 

Because  God  is  in  Christ,  it  is  worth  while  to 
work  for  him.  A  workman  is  sure  to  receive 
whatever  help  is  needed.  To  Festus  and  Agrippa, 
Paul  says,  “Having  obtained  the  help  that  is  from 
God,  I  stand  unto  this  day  testifying  both  to 
small  and  great.”  God  is  the  helper  of  every  one 
who  is  engaged  in  God’s  work.  “I  did  the  plant¬ 
ing,  Apollos  did  the  watering,  but  it  was  God  who 
made  the  seed  grow.”  God  does  most  of  the 


HIS  TRUSTFULNESS 


297 


work.  “Neither  planter  nor  waterer  counts,  but 
God  alone  who  makes  the  seed  grow.”  No  one 
works  in  vain.  “Each  one  will  get  his  own  wage 
for  the  special  work  that  he  has  done.”  “The 
victory  is  ours,  thank  God!  Hold  your  ground, 
immovable,  abound  in  work  for  the  Lord  at  all 
times,  for  you  may  be  sure  that  in  the  Lord  your 
labor  is  never  thrown  away.” 

Because  Paul  was  working  for  God,  he  was 
sure  he  was  guided  day  by  day.  Luke  tells  us 
how  Paul  happened  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  Eu¬ 
rope.  It  came  about  through  a  series  of  disap¬ 
pointments  and  rearrangings  of  plans.  Paul  and 
Barnabas  were  to  go  together  on  a  second  great 
missionary  tour,  but  the  dispute  about  John  Mark 
upset  everything,  and  sent  Paul  off  with  a  new 
helper  in  a  different  direction.  He  decided  that 
he  would  now  preach  in  the  province  of  Asia,  but 
when  he  was  ready  to  open  his  work  there,  “he 
was  forbidden,”  says  Luke,  “of  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  speak  the  word  in  Asia.”  In  what  way  the 
Holy  Spirit  forbade  him,  we  do  not  know.  It 
has  been  surmised  that  malaria  was  just  then 
prevalent  in  that  province,  and  that  Paul,  profit¬ 
ing  by  a  former  experience,  made  up  his  mind  to 
keep  away.  This  is  not  at  all  unlikely.  The 
Holy  Spirit  might  speak  through  an  epidemic, 
as  later  on  we  are  told  that  Paul  changed  his  plan 
because  of  a  plot  to  take  his  life.  Our  New  Tes¬ 
tament  says,  “A  plot  was  laid  against  him  by  the 


298 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


Jews  as  he  was  about  to  set  sail  for  Syria,  and 
he  determined  to  return  through  Macedonia.” 
In  an  ancient  and  honored  New  Testament  manu¬ 
script,  the  sentence  reads  thus :  “He  purposed  to 
set  sail  for  Syria,  but  the  Spirit  told  him  to  re¬ 
turn  through  Macedonia.”  The  Holy  Spirit 
spoke  to  him  through  outward  conditions  and  sit¬ 
uations,  and  through  inward  impulses  and  incli¬ 
nations.  Asia  for  some  reason  or  other  was  just 
then  inaccessible,  and  so  St.  Paul  turned  his  face 
toward  Bithynia.  When  he  came  opposite  Mysia, 
and  was  about  to  enter  Bithynia,  the  Spirit  of 
Jesus  “suffered  him  not.”  In  what  way  the  Spirit 
of  Jesus  made  his  will  known,  we  are  not  told, 
but  probably  on  approaching  the  province,  and 
learning  that  there  were  no  large  cities  in  it,  Paul 
felt  that  his  work  did  not  lie  in  that  direction, 
and  so  decided  to  go  on.  He  had  not  set  out 
with  the  expectation  of  going  to  Troas,  but  it 
was  in  Troas  that  he  and  his  fellow  travelers 
finally  arrived.  Two  doors  had  been  shut,  but 
Paul  was  not  disconcerted.  He  trusted  God.  He 
knew  the  way  must  be  open  for  the  work  God 
wanted  him  to  do.  Like  Abraham,  he  was  called, 
and  he  went  out  not  knowing  whither  he  was  go¬ 
ing.  He  walked  by  faith  and  not  by  sight.  He 
had  as  yet  no  thought  of  going  into  Europe,  but 
one  night  in  Troas  a  strange  thing  happened. 
He  had  a  dream,  and  in  the  dream  he  saw  a  man 
of  Macedonia  standing  before  him,  and  this  man 


HIS  TRUSTFULNESS 


299 


kept  saying  to  him,  “Come  over — come  over  and 
help  us!”  In  the  morning,  Paul  told  his  dream 
to  Silas  and  Timothy  and  Luke,  and  they  all  de¬ 
cided  that  in  this  dream  God  had  spoken.  They 
were  soon  on  their  way  to  Neapolis.  And  thus 
was  the  religion  of  Jesus  carried  from  one  conti¬ 
nent  to  another.  The  way  was  dark  and  per¬ 
plexing,  but  Paul  went  on  and  on.  It  takes  a  deal 
of  courage  to  walk  by  faith.  Men  become  dis¬ 
heartened  when  their  plans  break  down  and  the 
doors  are  shut,  but  Paul  was  confident  of  God's 
guidance,  and  whenever  a  call  came,  he  was  ready 
to  obey.  His  obedience  was  the  expression  of 
his  faith. 

It  was  by  faith  that  Paul  met  and  overcame 
suffering.  Suffering  cannot  be  the  last  word  in 
the  plan  of  a  loving  God.  Suffering  must  be  a 
preparation,  a  discipline,  an  introduction.  “I 
reckon  that  the  sufferings  of  this  present  time 
are  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  glory 
which  shall  be  revealed  in  us.  Our  light  af¬ 
fliction  which  is  for  the  moment,  worketh  for  us 
more  and  more  exceedingly  an  eternal  weight  of 
glory.”  “We  are  killed  all  the  day  long,  we  were 
accounted  as  sheep  for  the  slaughter;  in  all  these 
things  we  are  more  than  conquerors  through  him 
that  loved  us.”  This  is  faith. 

It  was  by  faith  that  Paul  faced  the  threats  and 
scorn  of  the  Graeco-Roman  world.  Like  Moses, 
he  endured  .as  seeing  Him  who  is  invisible.  Noth- 


300 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


ing  has  been  discovered  within  the  last  hundred 
years  to  throw  light  on  Paul's  personal  life.  The 
libraries  and  monasteries,  the  tombs  and  the  caves 
and  the  sand  heaps  have  been  ransacked  by  men 
eager  for  additional  information,  but  not  a  scrap 
has  been  found  to  increase  our  knowledge  of  the 
actions  or  words  or  exploits  of  the  Apostle..  No 
letter  to  him  or  by  him  has  been  found,  no  de¬ 
scription  of  him  by  any  Greek  or  Roman  writer 
has  yet  come  to  light.  Nothing  has  been  discov¬ 
ered  to  satisfy  our  curiosity  in  regard  to  his  con¬ 
templated  journey  to  Spain.  But  while  nothing 
has  been  found  to  tell  us  more  about  Paul’s  life, 
much  has  been  learned  about  the  world  in  which 
Paul  lived.  We  know  the  Roman  Empire  far 
better  than  did  the  men  of  the  early  19th  cen¬ 
tury.  We  possess  a  larger  knowledge  of  the  so¬ 
cial  and  political  conditions  of  the  countries 
through  which  Paul  traveled.  We  know  better 
the  religions  of  the  first  century,  and  the  grip 
they  had  on  the  imaginations  and  hearts  of  men. 
This  new  light  on  Paul’s  world  throws  new  light 
on  Paul  himself.  By  knowing  better  the  forces 
he  contended  with,  we  can  estimate  more  justly 
the  tremendous  power  of  the  man.  It  is  when  we 
place  ourselves  in  the  world  in  which  he  preached, 
that  we  begin  to  realize  the  magnificent  dimen¬ 
sions  of  his  faith.  He  always  struck  a*  once  for 
the  heart  of  great  cities.  He  wanted  to  challenge 
the  world  at  its  strongest  and  best.  He  loved 


HIS  TRUSTFULNESS 


301 


Ephesus  because  it  was  large  and  rich  and  mighty. 
The  great  temple  of  Diana  made  Ephesus  all  the 
more  attractive  to  him.  The  worship  of  Diana 
was  one  of  the  great  faiths  which  Jesus  was  to 
overthrow.  Her  temple  was  famous  throughout 
the  world — one  of  its  seven  wonders.  The  cere¬ 
monial  of  her  worship  was  magnificent  and  pro¬ 
foundly  impressive.  Her  influence  was  felt  in 
the  entire  life  of  the  people.  For  centuries  her 
power  had  held  the  whole  city  and  province  in  a 
grip  which  was  unbreakable.  Into  the  shadow  of 
the  magnificent  temple  of  this  renowned  and 
mighty  goddess,  there  comes  one  day  a  traveling 
Jew  with  a  new  conception  of  God,  and  he  dares 
to  believe  that  his  new  conception  will  some  day 
empty  that  temple  of  its  devotees  and  take  the 
glory  from  its  worship  and  topple  Diana  from 
her  seat.  Paul  had  no  church  edifice,  no  temple, 
no  shrine,  no  altar,  no  hierarchy  of  officiating 
priests — nothing  that  men  counted  indispensable 
to  religious  worship.  His  paltry  sacrament  of  a 
few  bits  of  bread  and  a  cup  of  wine  was  a  worth¬ 
less  and  contemptible  piece  of  mummery  in  the 
eyes  of  the  people  who  were  accustomed  to  the 
elaborate  and  gorgeous  ritual  of  the  great  temple ; 
but  Paul  dared  to  believe  that  that  ceremony  of 
the  bread  and  the  wine,  so  simple  and  unostenta¬ 
tious,  would  some  day  eclipse  the  full-orbed  splen¬ 
dor  of  the  temple  worship,  and  that  by  the  bread 
and  wine  there  could  be  symbolized  to  the  mind 


302 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


and  heart,  God’s  greatest  gift  to  men.  Paul  had 
no  backing  of  philosophers  or  scholars,  no  sup¬ 
port  of  the  rich  or  noble,  no  prestige  of  tradition, 
and  no  sanction  of  antiquity,  and  yet  he  had  faith 
that  his  incredible  story  of  a  crucified  male¬ 
factor  coming  out  of  his  grave  to  sit  on  the 
throne  of  heaven,  would  some  day  convince  the 
human  reason  and  win  the  devotion  of  the 
human  heart. 

What  he  did  in  Ephesus  he  did  also  in  Athens. 
The  city  was  dominated  by  beliefs  that  had  come 
down  through  a  thousand  years.  The  beliefs 
were  enshrined  in  tradition  and  poetry,  in  custom 
and  the  thought  of  the  common  people,  but  so 
great  was  Paul’s  confidence  in  God’s  revelation 
of  himself  in  Christ,  that  he  presented  his  new 
religion  to  the  exponents  of  the  leading  philo¬ 
sophical  schools  in  the  intellectual  center  of  the 
world,  daring  to  announce  to  them  that  God  is 
going  to  judge  every  nation  by  a  man  who  had 
been  crucified  in  Judea!  He  did  not  invite  dis¬ 
cussion,  but  simply  set  forth  his  belief.  He  be¬ 
lieved  and  therefore  he  spoke. 

He  followed  the  same  course  in  Rome.  He 
was  no  longer  now  a  free  man,  but  his  chains  did 
not  weaken  his  faith.  The  truth  cannot  be  bound. 
Rome  was  the  Mistress  of  the  World,  but  he  was 
not  afraid  or  ashamed  to  say  in  the  City  of  Cae¬ 
sar,  that  Rome  had  a  supreme  Master  whose  name 
was  Jesus.  It  was  faith  like  that  which  released 


HIS  TRUSTFULNESS 


303 


forces  which  finally  flung  the  cross  of  Jesus  above 
the  Roman  Eagles. 

Whenever  Paul  speaks  of  God,  there  is  a  note 
of  certainty  which  is  thrilling.  He  has  no  doubts, 
no  misgivings,  no  hesitations.  On  many  matters, 
he  expresses  himself  with  caution.  He  moves 
like  a  man  who  is  feeling  his  way  and  who  at 
times  distrusts  his  own  judgment.  But  when  he 
speaks  about  God,  his  confidence  is  complete.  He 
trusts  him  implicitly.  Doubt  of  God’s  love  never 
enters  his  heart.  Uncertainty  in  regard  to  God’s 
sovereignty  and  guidance  never  shadows  his  mind. 
His  faith  is  unclouded.  Because  of  his  faith,  he 
is  a  man  of  power.  “I  believe  God!”  so  he  said 
to  the  distracted  and  disheartened  company  on 
the  deck  of  the  wrecked  ship,  and  inspired  by  the 
words,  every  heart  present  throbbed  with  a  new 
life.  Faith  is  a  form  of  energy  which  passes 
from  soul  to  soul.  In  the  presence  of  those  who 
trust,  we  become  trustful  too. 

How  was  it  with  him  at  the  end?  Faith  is 
strong  under  bright  skies  and  along  smooth  roads, 
but  weakens,  oftentimes,  when  the  road  becomes 
rough  and  the  clouds  are  full  of  thunder.  The 
robust  faith  of  youth  sometimes  totters  when  the 
sun  is  low  in  the  west.  It  is  not  easy  to  keep 
one’s  faith  unshaken  to  the  end.  Paul  lived  in  a 
darkening  world.  On  the  throne  of  the  Roman 
Empire  sat  the  worst  man  who  had  ever  wielded 
the  Roman  scepter.  Religion  seemed  to  have 


304 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


lost  its  power.  The  masses  of  men  lived  without 
God  and  without  hope  in  the  world.  In  the  great 
cities  society  was  rotten,  and  in  the  rural  places, 
life  was  coarse  and  low.  The  experience  of 
Paul  had  been  such  as  to  make  him  acquainted 
with  the  worst  side  of  human  nature.  Men  had 
given  him  ingratitude  for  kindness  and  cruelty 
for  mercy.  The  cause  to  which  he  had  devoted 
his  life  had  made  a  tardy  and  halting  progress. 
The  religion  of  Jesus  was  ignored  by  the  classes, 
and  despised  by  the  masses.  Now  at  the  end  of 
the  day  Paul  is  in  prison.  He  has  time  to  sweep 
his  eyes  over  the  past  and  to  ponder  the  ups  and 
downs  of  the  difficult  road  along  which  his  feet 
have  traveled.  Sitting  in  chains  he  looks  death 
in  the  face.  Again  and  again  his  thoughts  turn 
toward  Timothy.  One  day  he  decides  to  write 
him  a  letter.  Timothy  is  his  son.  To  him  he  can 
pour  out  his  heart  as  to  no  one  else.  This  is  what 
he  says :  “I  am  suffering  all  this  because  I  am  a 
preacher  and  Apostle  and  teacher:  yet  I  am  not 
ashamed;  for  I  know  him  whom  I  have  believed, 
and  I  am  persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  guard  that 
which  I  have  committed  unto  him  against  that 
day.”  He  is  still  certain  as  to  his  reward.  He 
repeats  some  lines  which  may  have  been  his  own, 
or  possibly  they  may  have  formed  a  stanza  of  a 
hymn  sung  by  the  scattered  Christian  congrega¬ 
tions :  “If  we  died  with  him,  we  shall  also  live 
with  him,  if  we  endure  we  shall  also  reign  with 


HIS  TRUSTFULNESS 


305 


him:  if  we  shall  deny  him  he  also  will  deny  us: 
if  we  are  faithless  he  abideth  faithful:  for  he 
cannot  deny  himself.” 

Years  before,  he  had  written  to  the  Church  in 
Corinth:  “O  death,  where  is  thy  victory?  O 
death,  where  is  thy  sting?  Thanks  be  to  God 
who  giveth  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.”  That  same  note  of  triumph  is  still  ring¬ 
ing  in  his  heart.  “I  am  already  being  offered 
and  the  time  of  my  departure  is  come.  Hence¬ 
forth  there  is  laid  up  for  me  the  crown  of  right¬ 
eousness,  which  the  Lord  the  righteous  judge 
shall  give  to  me  at  that  day ;  and  not  to  me  only, 
but  also  to  all  them  that  have  loved  his  appear¬ 
ing.”  Near  the  bottom  of  the  last  page  of  the 
letter,  he  records  this  final  expression  of  his  trust : 
“The  Lord  will  deliver  me  from  every  evil  work, 
and  will  save  me  unto  his  heavenly  kingdom:  to 
whom  be  the  glory  forever  and  ever,  Amen.” 

And  so  at  the  end  of  his  life,  Paul  had  the 
same  quiet,  unshakable  confidence  in  God  which 
Jesus  had  manifested  from  the  day  of  his  bap¬ 
tism  to  the  day  of  his  death.  A  New  Testament 
writer  calls  Jesus  “the  xAaithor  and  Perfecter  of 
faith.”  It  was  he  who  perfected  the  faith  of  Paul. 
“It  is  not  I” — Paul  would  have  said — “but  Christ 
in  me  who  is  capable  of  this  unwavering  and  joy¬ 
ous  confidence  in  God.”  We  do  not  know  Paul’s 
dying  words.  But  if  just  before  his  head  was 
severed  from  his  body  he  spoke  at  all,  we  are  sure 


30 6 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


his  words  had  in  them  the  spirit  of  the  prayer  of 
Stephen — “Lord  lay  not  this  sin  to  their  charge,” 
the  triumphant  trustfulness  of  the  last  words  of 
Jesus — “Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit.” 


XXII 


HIS  HOPEFULNESS 


XXII 


HIS  HOPEFULNESS 

The  ancients  distrusted  hope.  They  had  no 
faith  in  it  because  it  had  so  often  disappointed 
them.  Hope  was  never  included  in  their  list  of 
virtues.  They  derived  little  inspiration  from 
thinking  of  the  future.  The  past  had  been  so 
treacherous  they  dared  not  trust  the  future.  We 
too  have  had  our  confidence  in  hope  shaken  by 
disillusioning  experiences.  We  have  hoped  and 
have  been  disappointed.  We  have  seen  hope 
grow  weak  and  die.  There  are  so  many  spurious 
and  degenerate  forms  of  hope  that  one  is  in  dan¬ 
ger  of  sinking  down  into  the  gloomy  skepticism 
which  overwhelmed  the  pre-Christian  world. 

Paul  has  sometimes  been  called  a  Pessimist, 
and  the  charge  is  based  on  his  description  of  hu¬ 
manity  in  his  Letter  to  the  Romans,  and  on  his 
picture  of  the  last  days  in  his  Second  Letter  to 
Timothy.  He  painted  both  pictures  black.  But 
is  a  man  a  pessimist  who  faces  and  recognizes 
somber  facts?  If  the  condition  of  the  pre-Chris¬ 
tian  world  was  as  Paul  painted  it,  he  is  not  open 
to  the  charge  of  pessimism.  If  the  enemies  of 


3  09 


3io 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


Christianity  have  turned  out  to  be  such  as  Paul 

j 

described  to  Timothy,  why  should  we  condemn 
him?  We  gain  nothing  by  ignoring  facts  which 
are  unpleasant.  Some  people  are  optimists  be¬ 
cause  they  are  ignorant.  They  smile  because 
they  do  not  know.  Others  are  optimists  because 
they  are  cowards — they  dare  not  face  the  situa¬ 
tion  as  it  is.  By  shutting  their  eyes  they  keep 
the  sunbeams  in  their  heart.  Others  are  optimists 
because  of  their  superficial  philosophy  of  life. 
They  believe  that  sin  is  only  immaturity,  and  that 
progress  is  automatic,  and  that  no  matter  what 
men  may  do  or  fail  to  do,  everything  is  certain  to 
come  out  all  right.  Much  of  the  so-called  opti¬ 
mism  of  the  world  is  foolishness. 

Paul  was  an  honest  man  and  faced  dismal  facts 
with  courage.  He  knew  the  deplorable  condition 
of  the  world,  but  he  never  lost  hope  for  human¬ 
ity.  The  Gentile  insensibility  to  spiritual  values 
did  not  overwhelm  him.  He  believed  the  Gentiles 
would  some  day  accept  the  Gospel.  They  were 
certain  to  do  this  because  of  the  long-suffering 
patience  and  boundless  mercy  of  God.  As  for  the 
Jews,  he  never  gave  them  up.  They  had  rejected 
their  Messiah,  and  for  the  present  were  obdurate 
in  their  unbelief,  but  this  attitude  would  not  con¬ 
tinue  always.  They  would  ultimately  come  in. 
Paul’s  hope  is  all  the  more  wonderful  because  of 
the  surrounding  darkness.  There  was  little  in 
the  world-condition  in  the  first  century  to  encour- 


HIS  HOPEFULNESS 


311 

age  bright  expectations.  The  Gentiles  were  in¬ 
different  to  the  message  of  Jesus,  and  the  Jews 
were  fierce  in  their  rejection  of  it,  but  Paul  never 
surrendered  his  hope.  “It  is  only  a  partial  in¬ 
sensibility, ’’  he  said,  “that  has  come  over  Israel, 
until  the  full  number  of  the  Gentiles  come  in. 
This  done,  all  Israel  will  be  saved.  God  never 
goes  back  on  his  gifts  and  call.”  The  letter  to 
the  Romans  is  not  the  screed  of  a  pessimist,  it  is 
a  document  of  hope.  The  whole  letter  is  con¬ 
ceived  in  the  atmosphere  of  anticipation.  It  is 
in  this  letter  that  Paul  gives  God  a  new  name — 
the  “God  of  Hope.”  The  letter  closes  with  a 
prayer  that  the  Romans  may  abound  in  hope. 
Not  a  simple  gloomy  fact  is  ignored,  but  Paul’s 
hope  is  so  strong  that  it  soars  over  the  vast 
stretches  of  human  degradation  and  alights  on 
the  shining  summits  of  a  world  redeemed  in 
Christ. 

The  Second  Letter  to  Timothy  is  not  devoid 
of  somber  colors,  but  it  is  shot  through  and 
through  with  the  glory  of  hope.  The  depressing 
facts  are  all  marshaled,  but  they  do  not  lead  to 
despair.  There  are  deserters  like  JPhygellus  and 
Hermogenes,  but  there  are  also  loyal  souls  like 
Onesiphorus.  There  are  heretics  like  Hymenseus 
and  Philetus.  They  overthrow  the  faith  of  some, 
but  not  of  all.  Their  efforts  will  in  the  end  come 
to  nothing,  for  “the  firm  foundation  of  God 
standeth.”  Grievous  times  lie  ahead,  and  bad 


312 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


men  will  oppose  the  truth,  but  they  will  oppose  it 
in  vain.  Their  fate  will  be  the  fate  of  Jannes 
and  Jambres,  the  rebels  who  resisted  the  author¬ 
ity  of  Moses.  Many  will  have  itching  ears  and 
will  run  after  teachers  who  will  give  them  novel 
and  worthless  ideas,  but  the  teachers  of  the  truth 
must  persevere  in  their  work,  knowing  that  a 
crown  awaits  them  at  the  end.  Demas  has  for¬ 
saken  him  but  Luke  is  still  true.  Alexander  the 
coppersmith  has  done  him  much  evil,  but  for  all 
of  the  evil  he  will  answer  to  God.  Final  justice 
is  certain.  At  the  first  trial  no  one  has  taken  his 
part — no  one  but  God,  and  because  God  was  with 
him,  a  great  blessing  had  come  out  of  the  trial  in 
that  many  who  had  never  before  heard  of  Jesus, 
were  permitted  to  hear  of  him  and  his  salvation. 
The  whole  letter  is  lit  up  with  the  radiance  of  a 
hopeful  heart.  Nowhere  is  there  a  trace  of  de¬ 
spair.  The  letter  ends  with  this  jubilant  note : 
“The  Lord  will  deliver  me  from  every  evil  work, 
and  will  save  me  unto  his  heavenly  kingdom:  to 
whom  be  the  glory  forever  and  ever.” 

In  his  hope  as  in  his  faith,  Paul  drank  inspira¬ 
tion  from  the  example  of  Abraham.  Abraham 
was  wonderful  in  hope.  “In  hope  he  believed 
against  hope.”  There  was  nothing  in  outward 
conditions  to  encourage  him  in  hoping.  But  nev¬ 
ertheless  Abraham  kept  on  hoping.  His  hope  was 
fed  by  his  faith.  It  was  because  he  believed  that 
he  was  able  to  hope.  Like  Abraham,  Paul  made 


HIS  HOPEFULNESS 


313 

his  home  in  the  realm  of  expectancy.  “In  hope 
were  we  saved” — so  he  wrote  to  the  Romans. 
“We  cannot  at  the  beginning  see  what  we  are 
going  to  be.  Hope  that  is  seen  is  not  hope.  Who 
hopes  for  that  which  he  sees?”  The  thing  which 
we  hope  for  always  lies  out  of  sight.  Our  hope 
of  getting  it  supplies  the  strength  to  pursue  it. 
“If  we  hope  for  that  which  we  see  not,  then  do 
we  with  patience  wait  for  it.”  Hope  is  the  mother* 
of  patience,  and  of  many  other  virtues. 

Paul  made  large  use  of  the  future.  He  was 
always  seeing  himself  as  he  was  some  day  going 
to  be.  He  forgot  the  things  behind  him  in  his 
eagerness  to  get  hold  of  the  things  in  front  of 
him.  He  could  not  brood  over  the  troubles  of 
the  past,  because  of  his  joyful  anticipation  of 
grasping  the  prize  which  had  been  promised.  It 
was  the  spirit  of  hope  which  gave  fleetness  to  his 
feet  and  buoyancy  to  his  heart.  We  have  only 
the  first-fruits  of  the  spirit,  and  we  groan  within 
ourselves  because  we  are  waiting  for  something 
which  has  been  promised,  but  which  has  not  yet 
arrived. 

Because  of  his  hope,  death  had  no  terror.  All 
things  work  together  for  good  to  those  who' 
love  God,  and  therefore  death  will  only  assist  ai 
good  man  along  his  way.  The  fact  that  God  has 
given  us  so  much  justifies  us  in  expecting  still 
more.  “The  God  who  did  not  spare  his  own  son, 
but  gave  himself  up  for  us  all,  surely  he  will  give 


3J4 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


us  everything  besides.’'  “I  am  certain  neither 
death  nor  life,  neither  angels  nor  principalities, 
neither  the  present  nor  the  future,  no  powers  of 
the  height  or  the  depth,  nor  anything  else  in  all 
creation  will  be  able  to  part  us  from  God’s  love 
in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.”  This  was  his  hope. 

He  had  a  glowing  hope  for  the  Church.  His 
hope  for  the  Church,  like  his  hope  for  himself, 
was  founded  on  Christ.  Christ  had  bought  the 
Church  with  his  own  blood,  and  therefore  its 
future  was  glorious.  As  yet  it  was  feeble  and  un¬ 
worthy.  The  little  congregations  flickered  like 
tallow  dips  in  a  wind  which  blew  with  the  fury  of 
a  tempest.  Insignificant  companies  of  obscure 
and  blundering  men  and  women,  what  could  they 
ever  become  or  accomplish?  Although  called  to 
holiness,  they  were  weakened  by  worldliness  and 
stained  by  sin,  and  brought  repeatedly  under  the 
dominion  of  the  world  and  the  flesh  and  the  devil. 
But  Paul  never  lost  hope  Over  the  top  of  the 
actual,  sordid  and  disappointing  Church,  he  sees 
the  heavenly  splendor  of  the  ideal  Church  without 
spot  or  wrinkle  or  any  such  flaw.  That  is  the 
Church  he  dared  to  hope  for,  because  God  had 
decreed  that  his  Church  should  be  holy  and  with¬ 
out  blemish. 

Because  Paul  could  hope  for  the  Church  of 
Christ,  he  could  hope  for  the  entire  human  race. 
Humanity  is  sunken  in  sin,  but  if  one  man  can  be 
delivered  from  sin,  there  is  hope  for  all  mankind. 


HIS  HOPEFULNESS 


315 


One  man  has  been  delivered,  and  therefore  the 
future  is  certain.  But  the  evidences  of  the  world’s 
redemption  are  not  visible.  The  Roman  empire 
shows  no  disposition  to  accept  the  ideals  of 
Jesus.  A  man  here  and  there  surrenders  his  heart 
to  Jesus,  but  the  masses  of  men  pass  on  unheed¬ 
ing.  But  this  does  not  dim  Paul’s  hope.  God  is 
on  the  throne,  and  God’s  purpose  will  be  realized. 
The  Son  of  God  had  said — “If  I  be  lifted  up, 

I  will  draw  all  men  unto  me,”  and  therefore  the 
time  will  come  when  “at  the  name  of  Jesus  every 
knee  will  bow,  of  things  in  heaven  and  things  in 
earth  and  things  under  the  earth,  and  every 
tongue  will  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord  to 
the  glory  of  God  the  Father.”  This  was  his 
hope.  It  was  a  subtle  flame  burning  at  the  center 
of  his  heart,  and  the  blustering  winds  could  not 
blow  it  out. 

Paul  had  high  hopes  for  the  universe.  It  has 
many  a  dark  and  inexplicable  feature,  but  it  is 
moving  toward  a  divine  goal.  It  is  sighing  and 
throbbing  with  pain,  but  the  pain  is  not  aimless. 
The  universe  is  waiting  for  something — the  ad¬ 
vent  of  a  higher  type  of  man.  The  universe  is 
subject  to  the  divine  will,  and  therefore  it  will  one 
day  be  freed  from  its  thralldom  to  decay  and  gain 
the  glorious  freedom  of  the  children  of  God. 
This  was  his  hope. 

Paul  abounded  in  hope.  He  saw  that  hope  is 
one  of  the  mightiest  of  all  the  forces  working  in 


3r6 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


human  life.  It  is  hope  which  keeps  the  farmer 
toiling  in  the  field.  No  man  will  plow  unless  he 
expects  to  reap.  No  man  will  thresh  unless  he 
can  count  on  carrying  home  some  of  the  garnered 
grain.  No  general  will  go  willingly  to  battle  un¬ 
less  there  is  a  hope  of  victory.  It  is  hope  which 
enables  a  man  to  hold  up  his  head.  Unless  a  sol¬ 
dier’s  head  is  up,  he  cannot  fight.  For  this  reason 
Paul  in  sketching  the  armor  of  a  soldier  of  Christ, 
symbolizes  hope  by  the  helmet.  It  is  the  virtue 
which  enables  a  man  to  stand  erect  and  to  fight 
with  determination.  A  soldier  in  despair  is  al¬ 
ready  a  defeated  man.  Paul  was  mighty  as  a 
warrior,  because  he  always  had  his  helmet  on. 

Paul  has  much  to  teach  us  of  a  hope  which 
does  not  make  ashamed.  Many  of  our  hopes 
come  to  nothing.  We  expect  things  which  do 
not  come,  and  which  cannot  come,  the  universe 
being  what  it  is.  There  are  hopes  which  are  false 
and  which  lead  the  world  into  darkness.  When 
great  expectations  come  to  nothing,  earth’s  base 
seems  to  be  built  on  stubble.  Paul’s  hope  was 
built  upon  God.  His  hope  was  nourished  by  his 
religion.  No  hope  can  endure  which  does  not 
rest  on  religious  faith.  When  we  build  our  hope 
for  civilization  on  progress  or  on  science  or  on 
education  or  on  commercial  prosperity  or  on  num¬ 
bers  or  on  armament  or  on  democracy,  we  are 
building  on  sand.  There  is  only  one  sure  ground 
of  hope,  and  that  is  God.  Unless  there  sits  upon 


HIS  HOPEFULNESS 


317 


the  throne  of  the  universe  a  God  who  is  like 
Jesus,  what  right  have  we  to  expect  anything 
glorious  for  the  human  race  in  the  illimitable 
future?  Unless  man  is  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  and  unless  he  is  under  the  guidance  of 
God’s  spirit,  and  unless  all  things  on  earth  are 
held  in  the  hands  of  a  God  who  loves  us  and  cares 
for  us,  what  justification  have  we  for  hoping  that 
the  fate  of  the  Empires  and  Republics  of  our  day 
will  be  different  from  the  fate  of  Babylon,  Thebes 
and  Rome?  It  is  not  enough  to  wish.  Wishing 
is  not  hoping.  When  we  hope  we  not  only  wish, 
but  we  expect.  Expecting  is  not  enough.  We 
must  expect  only  the  things  which  a  God  who  is 
like  Jesus  can  bestow.  We  must  not  expect  spir¬ 
itual  growth  when  we  persist  in  acting  the  fool. 
We  must  not  expect  peace  when  we  go  on  squan¬ 
dering  national  wealth  in  preparing  for  war,  we 
must  not  expect  happiness  so  long  as  we  are 
greedy  and  selfish,  and  we  must  not  expect  civili¬ 
zation  to  endure  if  we  go  on  building  our  houses 
on  the  slopes  of  the  volcanoes  of  suspicion  and 
ill-will.  There  is  no  hope  that  will  not  make  us 
ashamed  except  the  hope  which  is  founded  on  a 
God  who  is  like  Christ. 

Paul  declares  that  this  attitude  of  expectancy 
is  an  attitude  of  the  soul  forever.  In  the  next 
world,  as  in  this  one,  we  shall  go  on  hoping. 
Hoping  is  one  of  the  pleasures  of  heaven.  It 
gives  joy  here,  and  it  will  give  joy  there.  There 


3i8  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

will  always  be  something  ahead  of  us  to  look 
forward  to,  always  something  better  than  any¬ 
thing  we  have  yet  experienced,  always  something 
higher  than  any  height  to  which  we  have  yet  at¬ 
tained,  always  something  more  glorious  than  any¬ 
thing  we  have  yet  known.  There  will  be  another 
and  a  higher  heaven  beyond  the  heaven  we  are  in. 
Forever  and  forever  we  shall  hope,  just  as  for¬ 
ever  and  forever  we  shall  trust  and  love.  Paul 
today  is  still  hoping. 

When  Paul  uses  faith,  hope  and  love  as  a  sub¬ 
ject,  he  uses  the  singular  verb.  In  this  way  he 
shows  that  in  his  conception  these  three  powers 
of  the  soul  constitute  a  unity.  It  is  impossible  to 
hold  them  separate  one  from  the  other.  We  can¬ 
not  trust  without  hope,  and  we  cannot  hope  with¬ 
out  trust.  We  cannot  love  without  hope,  and  we 
cannot  hope  without  love.  If  we  trust  we  hope, 
and  if  we  hope  we  love.  If  we  love  we  hope  and 
if  we  hope  we  trust.  Our  life  is  not  complete 
unless  we  trust  and  hope  and  love.  It  is  difficult 
to  separate  Paul’s  trustfulness  from  his  hopeful¬ 
ness,  and  still  more  difficult  to  separate  his  hope¬ 
fulness  from  his  love.  He  says  that  love  is  great 
in  trusting,  and  it  is  great  also  in  hoping.  Love 
believes  all  things,  and  love  hopes  all  things. 
Paul  is  great  in  faith  and  hope  and  love.  He  is 
wonderful  in  faith,  but  he  is  equally  wonderful  in 
hope.  He  had  his  hours  of  despondency,  but  his 
hope  did  not  die.  He  always  looked  forward.  He 


HIS  HOPEFULNESS 


319 


was  sure  chat  after  every  night  must  come  the 
morning,  and  that  the  summer  must  follow  every 
winter.  After  the  suffering  must  come  the  joy, 
and  after  the  conflict  must  come  the  peace.  He 
was  saved  by  hope. 

He  has  hope  for  himself  and  for  everybody 
else,  and  all  his  hope  is  rooted  in  God.  He  has 
hope  for  the  whole  creation,  because  all  creation 
coheres  in  Christ.  All  things  belong  to  a  man  if 
the  man  belongs  to  Christ,  “whether  Paul  or 
Apollos  or  Cephas,  or  the  world  or  life  or  death, 
or  things  present,  or  things  to  come,  all  are  his  if 
he  is  Christ’s,  because  Christ  belongs  to  God.” 
After  the  present  dispensation  has  run  its  course, 
“Christ  will  deliver  up  his  Kingdom  to  God  his 
Father.  He  will  not  do  this  till  he  has  abolished 
all  rule  and  all  authority  and  power.  He  must 
reign  till  he  has  put  all  his  enemies  under  his  feet. 
When  all  things  have  been  subjected  unto  him, 
then  shall  the  Son  also  himself  be  subjected  to 
him  who  did  subject  all  things  unto  him  that  God 
may  be  all  in  all.”  In  this  glorious  hope,  Paul 
labored  and  suffered  and  conquered. 


XXIII 


HIS  LOVE 


XXIII 


HIS  LOVE 

Paul  is  generally  known  as  a  thinker.  We 
ought  to  think  of  him  more  frequently  as  a  lover. 
His  thinking  was  rooted  and  grounded  in  his 
love.  It  was  in  the  garden  of  love  that  all  his 
virtues  and  graces  came  into  bloom.  John  the 
Son  of  Zebedee  has  long  enjoyed  the  distinction 
of  being  called  the  Apostle  of  love.  The  title 
rightfully  belongs  to  the  Man  of  Tarsus.  In  his 
capacity  for  loving,  Paul  was  not  a  whit  behind 
the  disciples  whom  Jesus  loved.  In  his  faculty 
for  describing  the  nature  and  power  of  love,  no 
one  has  ever  equaled  him.  It  is  a  mistaken  no¬ 
tion  that  Paul’s  fundamental  doctrine  is  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  justification  by  faith.  His  cardinal  doc¬ 
trine  is  the  doctrine  of  salvation  by  love.  His 
doctrine  of  justification  by  faith  is  expounded  in 
detail  in  only  one  of  his  letters — the  Letter  to 
the  Romans — and  then  only  in  opposition  to  the 
devotees  of  the  Jewish  law,  whereas  he  is  every¬ 
where  and  always  dwelling  on  the  wonder-work¬ 
ing  power  of  love.  Whenever  he  touches  this 
subject,  a  divine  afflatus  comes  upon  him,  and  his 


323 


324 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

■  ti 

sentences  take  on  the  loveliness  of  gems.  He  is 
never  so  fervent,  so  eloquent,  and  so  convincing 
as  when  love  is  his  theme.  He  invariably  puts 
love  above  faith.  The  first  fruit  of  the  spirit  is 
love.  Love  is  deeper  than  faith  and  mightier,  for 
love  works  through  faith.  Love  is  of  higher 
worth  than  faith.  One  may  possess  faith  in  its 
highest  stage  of  development,  but  if  one  lacks 
love,  his  faith  profits  him  nothing.  Faith,  hope 
and  love  are  all  great,  but  the  greatest  of  the 
three  is  love. 

Paul’s  sayings  about  love  have  become  prov¬ 
erbs  throughout  the  Christian  world.  “Knowl¬ 
edge  puffs  up,  love  builds  up.”  “Love  is  the  ful¬ 
filment  of  the  law.”  “Love  works  no  ill  to  his 
neighbor.”  “Owe  no  man  anything  save  to  love 
one  another.”  “Through  love  be  servants  one  to 
another.”  “Put  on  the  breastplate  of  faith  and 
love.”  “Speak  the  truth  in  love.”  “Let  all  that 
ye  do  be  done  in  love.”  “Above  all  these  things, 
put  on  love  which  is  the  bond  of  perfectness.” 
“Love  bears  all  things,  believes  all  things,  hopes 
all  things,  endures  all  things.”  “Love  never 
fails.” 

Paul’s  favorite  idea  is  love  and  it  finds  immor¬ 
tal  expression  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  of  his 
First  Letter  to  the  Corinthians.  This  is  Paul’s 
masterpiece.  It  is  one  of  the  few  Pauline  pas¬ 
sages  which  stand  on  a  level  with  the  words  of 
Jesus.  It  is  one  of  the  brightest  jewels  of  the 


HIS  LOVE 


325 


Christian  religion.  It  is  a  world  classic,  and  will 
outlive  all  the  classics  of  Greece  and  Rome.  Its 
language  is  so  rhythmic,  that  it  has  become  the 
fashion  to  call  it  a  song  or  a  hymn.  It  is  not  a 
poem,  but  it  has  in  it  the  subtle  music  of  a  poet’s 
heart.  It  is  the  noblest  description  of  love  ever 
penned,  and  will  be  treasured  as  long  as  man¬ 
kind  prizes  things  that  are  beautiful. 

When  therefore,  we  want  to  know  what  Paulin- 
ism  is,  we  must  turn  to  the  thirteenth  Chapter 
of  First  Corinthians.  It  is  here  that  Paul’s  mind 
and  heart  find  their  highest  expression.  What 
has  been  known  as  Paulinism — original  sin,  vi¬ 
carious  atonement,  and  imputed  righteousness — 
is  not  the  Paulinism  which  will  hold  the  future. 
The  genuine  Paulinism  is  the  doctrine  of  love. 
We  fail  to  see  Paul  as  he  ought  to  be  seen,  un¬ 
less  we  see  him  as  a  lover.  His  home  is  not  in 
the  realm  of  scholasticism,  but  in  the  domain  of 
feeling.  He  does  not  belong  to  the  kingdom  of 
subtle  distinctions  and  elaborate  definitions  and 
inexorable  dogmas.  He  is  not  related  to  the  sub- 
lapsarians  or  to  the  supralapsarians,  but  to  the 
elect  company  of  those  who  have  been  baptized 
into  the  sweet  mystery  of  love.  He  is  a  lover, 
and  like  all  lovers  is  of  imagination  all  compact. 
He  is  full  of  poetry  and  suggestion  and  imagery. 
He  likes  to  allegorize  the  Scriptures  into  poetry. 
He  loves  religious  stories  like  the  one  of  the  roll¬ 
ing  rock  which  followed  the  Israelites  through 


326 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


the  wilderness.  He  seizes  on  that  fictitious  rock 
as  a  symbol  of  Christ.  His  letters  are  all  love 
letters.  If  they  are  read  as  theological  treatises, 
they  become  mysteries  and  stumbling  blocks. 
When  we  read  them,  we  must  not  be  too  sober 
or  too  prosaic.  He  hated  the  hard  literalism  of 
pedants.  Paul  has  been  linked  in  the  popular 
mind  with  predestination,  foreordination,  justifi¬ 
cation  by  faith,  effectual  calling  and  imputed 
righteousness,  when  he  ought  to  be  linked  with 
the  fruit  of  the  Spirit — love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  kindness,  goodness,  faithfulness,  meek¬ 
ness  and  self-control.  His  name  has  been  sug¬ 
gestive  of  long  and  metaphysical  creeds,  but  it  is 
difficult  for  any  one  who  really  knows  him,  to 
think  of  him  taking  interest  in  any  of  the  great 
creeds  of  the  Church,  especially  those  of  the  16th 
and  17th  centuries.  We  cannot  conceive  of  him 
reading  the  ponderous  volumes  in  which  his  doc¬ 
trines  are  expounded.  It  is  not  a  scheme  of 
doctrine,  but  a  disposition  which  he  wished  to 
fasten  on  the  world,  not  a  dogma  but  a  loving 
spirit  which  he  wished  to  impart.  The  thing 
which  made  him  happy,  was  not  the  assent  of  the 
intellect  to  a  particular  proposition,  but  the 
growth  of  the  soul  in  its  apprehension  of  the 
dimensions  of  love.  “We  are  bound  to  give 
thanks  to  God  always  for  you,  brothers,  for  that 
your  faith  grows  exceedingly,  and  the  love  of 
each  one  of  you  all  toward  one  another  abounds.” 


HIS  LOVE 


327  • 

The  atmosphere  of  legalism  in  which  his  theology 
has  been  expounded,  is  the  very  atmosphere  he 
hated  and  did  his  utmost  to  banish.  The  God 
of  the  Pauline  theologians  is  all  bound  up  by 
inexorable  conditions  and  works  out  his  will  with 
difficulty,  because  immeshed  in  the  laws  of  his 
own  making,  and  that  is  the  kind  of  God  which 
P'uil  had  known  in  Judaism,  and  which  he  had 
left  forever  behind.  The  Paul  of  traditional  the¬ 
ology  has  incited  men  to  argument  and  contro¬ 
versy.  The  Paul  of  the  New  Testament  when 
clearly  seen  inspires  men  to  love.  When  we  see 
him  as  he  is,  he  will  shine  in  our  eyes  as,  next 
to  Jesus,  the  world’s  supreme  lover.  All  that  he 
wrote  must  be  read  in  the  light  of  his  love. 

His  nature  was  warmly  affectionate.  He  was 
always  hungering  for  love.  He  could  never  get 
enough  of  it.  He  always  wanted  more.  The 
love  of  God  was  not  sufficient.  He  craved  the 
love  of  human  beings,  just  as  Jesus  did  when 
he  took  three  men  with  him  into  the  garden  of 
Gethsemane  on  the  last  night.  We  are  human 
and  God’s  love  must  be  mediated  to  us  through 
our  fellows.  Paul  could  not  have  done  his  work 
without  the  love  of  his  friends.  They  were  in¬ 
dispensable  supports  of  his  soul.  Without  them 
he  was  undone.  He  could  not  bear  to  be  alone. 
He  never  forgot  his  desolateness  when  once  in 
the  City  of  Athens,  he  was  entirely  alone.  When 
friends  were  temporarily  estranged  from  him,  his 


328 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


heart  was  torn  to  pieces.  When  a  friend  forsook 
him,  the  world  became  dark.  “Demas  has  for¬ 
saken  me!”  When  we  read  the  words,  we  can 
hear  his  heart  groan.  He  yearned  constantly 
for  human  approbation,  human  appreciation,  hu¬ 
man  sympathy  and  affection.  He  was  sensitive 
to  slights,  wounded  by  ingratitude,  killed  by  sus¬ 
picion  and  dislike.  He  tells  the  Corinthians  how 
delighted  he  was  when  Titus  brought  him  word 
of  their  longing,  their  mourning,  their  zeal  for 
him.  That  was  a  sort  of  food  on  which  he  lived. 
He  confesses  that  he  has  written  a  letter  to  them 
“not  on  account  of  the  offender  nor  for  the  sake 
of  the  injured  party,  but  in  order  to  let  them  real¬ 
ize  before  God  how  seriously  they  cared  for  him.” 
“That  is  what  comforts  me,”  he  said. 

When  he  is  absent  from  his  friends,  he  thinks 
of  them,  prays  for  them  every  day,  mentions 
them  by  name  in  his  prayers,  meditates  upon  their 
spiritual  progress,  rejoices  in  their  moral  victories, 
looks  forward  with  eagerness  to  hearing  from 
them  again.  “I  hope  to  send  Timothy  to  you  be¬ 
fore  long,  that  I  may  be  heartened  by  news  of 
you.”  He  could  not  live  without  news  of  his 
friends.  When  the  news  was  delayed,  he  became 
uneasy.  If  it  was  withheld  too  long,  he  was 
completely  upset.  He  loved  to  think  of  the  last 
time  he  saw  his  friends.  He  remembered  how 
Timothy  wept  at  the  last  parting.  He  longed  to 
meet  his  friends  again.  “Brothers,  when  we  were 


i 


HIS  LOVE 


329 


bereft  of  you  for  a  little  while  (out  of  sight, 
but  not  out  of  mind)  we  were  the  more  eager 
to  see  you.  We  had  a  keen  longing  for  you. 
Night  and  day  I  pray  specially  that  I  may  see 
your  faces  and  supply  what  is  defective  in  your 
faith.” 

He  was  always  thanking  God  for  his  friends, 
praising  them,  pouring  out  his  love  on  them. 
With  what  affectionate  pride  he  writes,  “My  fel¬ 
low-workers,”  “My  fellow  soldiers,”  “My  fellow 
prisoners.”  There  is  a  wealth  of  love  in  the  little 
pronoun  “My.”  He  says  to  the  Corinthians — 
“I  wrote  to  you  in  sore  distress  and  misery  of 
heart  with  many  a  tear,  not  to  pain  you  but 
to  convince  you  of  my  love,  my  special  love 
for  you.”  To  the  Philippians  he  says — “God 
is  my  witness  that  I  yearn  for  you  all  with 
the  affection  of  Christ  Jesus  himself.”  How 
he  lavishes  his  love  on  Timothy  and  Titus, 
on  Tychicus  and  Epaphroditus,  on  Philemon  and 
Luke,  on  Prisca  and  Aquila,  and  on  a  host  of 
others.  He  cannot  live  without  them.  In  his  last 
letter  we  hear  him  calling  for  Timothy.  “Do 
your  best  to  come  soon  to  me.  Demas  has  gone. 
Crescens  has  gone.  Titus  has  gone.  Luke  is  the 
only  one  who  is  with  me.  I  need  you.  I  need 
Mark  also.  Bring  Mark  along.  Erastus  stayed  in 
Corinth.  I  left  Trophimus  at  Miletus  ill.  Do 
your  best  to  come  before  winter.”  This  is  the 
importunate  appeal  of  an  affectionate  heart,  so 


330 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


loving  that  it  cannot  live  alone.  Through  all  of 
Paul’s  letters,  there  is  a  rush  of  love  which  swirls 
round  the  bases  of  his  argument,  and  submerges 
his  ideas,  and  floods  the  whole  territory  through 
which  he  is  making  his  way. 

But  his  love  does  not  halt  at  the  outer  fron¬ 
tiers  of  personal  friendship.  He  loves  all  Chris¬ 
tian  believers.  He  loves  the  Churches.  They 
are  his  children.  He  loves  every  person  in  them. 
He  carries  them  all  in  his  heart.  A  church  is  a 
company  of  lovers.  In  Christian  fellowship  he 
finds  his  highest  satisfactions  and  rewards.  To 
the  Church  in  Corinth  he  writes:  “My  heart  is 
wide  open  for  you.”  To  the  Church  in  Philippi 
he  writes:  “I  cherish  love  and  longing  for  you. 
You  are  my  joy  and  crown.”  To  the  Church  in 
Thessalonica  he  writes:  “Who  is  our  hope,  our 
joy,  our  crown  of  pride?  Why  you,  you  are  our 
glory  and  joy.”  The  Church  is  rooted  and 
grounded  in  love,  and  it  is  in  love  that  it  builds 
itself  up.  It  is  when  Christians  are  in  communion 
with  one  another,  that  they  grasp  the  meaning 
of  the  Breadth,  the  Length,  the  Depth,  and  the 
Height,  by  knowing  the  love  of  Christ  which 
surpasses  all  knowledge.”  “Christ  loved  the 
Church  and  gave  himself  for  it,”  and  so  also  did 
Paul. 

His  love  was  wider  than  the  Christian  fellow¬ 
ship.  He  loved  all  mankind.  He  loved  his  coun¬ 
trymen,  and  he  loved  foreigners  also.  He  was 


HIS  LOVE 


331 


fond  of  the  people  of  every  nation.  He  felt  he 
was  indebted  to  them  every  one.  His  deep  de¬ 
sire  was  to  share  with  them  the  good  things 
which  had  come  to  him.  Even  people  he  had 
never  seen  tugged  at  his  heart.  He  had  never 
been  in  Rome,  but  he  longed  to  impart  to  the 
Romans  a  spiritual  gift.  He  had  never  seen  the 
people  of  Spain,  but  he  had  an  ineradicable  de¬ 
sire  to  help  them.  God  so  loved  the  world  that 
he  gave  his  only  begotten  son,  and  Paul  so  loved 
the  world  that  his  supreme  ambition  was  to  lay 
the  whole  of  it  at  the  feet  of  Christ. 

Paul  was  not  always  a  lover.  Once  he  was  a 
hater.  He  hated  with  all  the  intensity  of  his 
fervent  soul.  And  then  one  day  he  met  Jesus, 
and  his  hate  was  transformed  to  love.  He  had 
hated  Jesus,  but  Jesus  did  not  retaliate.  Jesus 
pitied  Paul  and  yearned  to  help  him.  There  was 
a  tenderness  in  Jesus’  voice  which  broke  Paul’s 
heart.  There  was  an  affection  in  Jesus’  eyes 
which  dimmed  the  light  of  the  sun.  It  was  a 
glory  which  Paul  had  never  dreamed.  From  that 
hour  on,  Paul  was  a  lover.  He  loved  Jesus  with 
a  love  which  knew  no  bounds.  He  loved  him 
with  a  passion  which  has  probably  never  been 
equaled.  He  loved  him  so  completely  that  his 
own  self  was  annihilated,  swallowed  up  in  the 
life  of  Jesus. 

It  is  his  love  for  Jesus  which  accounts  for  all 
his  virtues,  and  explains  his  entire  career.  It 


332 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


made  him  patient.  Jesus  had  been  patient  with 
him — why  should  not  Paul  be  patient  with  others  ? 
It  gave  him  courage.  Jesus  had  been  courageous 
in  meeting  all  his  foes,  why  should  not  Paul  be 
heroic  too?  It  gave  him  hope.  If  he  could  be 
changed  from  a  man  of  hate  to  a  man  of  love, 
why  should  he  not  have  hope  for  every  man? 
It  made  him  willing  to  sacrifice  everything  for 
Jesus.  “He  loved  me  and  gave  himself  for  me,” 
this  is  what  he  kept  saying  to  himself  in  the 
midst  of  all  his  tribulations  and  distresses. 

It  was  his  love  of  Jesus  which  constituted  the 
driving  power  of  his  life.  It  compelled  him  to 
preach.  “Woe  is  me  if  I  do  not  preach!”  It 
forced  him  to  the  heart  of  great  cities.  They 
were  the  centers  of  the  world’s  life,  the  homes  of 
the  hierarchy  of  evil,  and  they  must  all  be  con¬ 
quered  for  Christ.  It  drove  him  to  undertake  his 
long  and  perilous  missionary  journeys.  “The 
love  of  Christ  constrains  me,”  so  he  said  as  he 
went  forward  along  his  steep  and  difficult  way. 

It  was  love  which  gave  him  freedom.  It  lifted 
him  above  all  bondage  to  rules,  and  broke  the 
chains  of  hampering  traditions.  It  enabled  him 
to  taste  of  the  glorious  liberty  of  a  child  in  his 
father’s  house.  It  gave  him  a  sense  of  power  and 
a  certainty  of  victory.  “I  can  do  all  things  in 
Christ.”  That  was  not  vainglorious  boasting,  but 
the  calm  statement  of  an  experienced  fact. 

It  gave  him  an  insight  into  the  dominant  prin- 


HIS  LOVE 


333 


ciple  of  the  universe,  and  made  it  possible  for  him 
to  write  his  hymn  of  love.  What  makes  the 
hymn  of  love  immeasurably  precious,  is  that  it  is 
a  transcript  of  Paul’s  personal  experience.  It  is 
a  portrait  of  Paul  painted  by  himself.  “Love 
suffers  long  and  is  kind.”  He  knew  that  because 
of  his  love  for  the  Corinthians.  After  all  the 
pain  they  had  caused  him,  he  loved  them  more 
than  ever.  “Love  envies  not.”  He  was  sure  of 
that,  because  his  own  heart  was  innocent  of  envy. 
He  did  not  envy  the  rich  or  the  learned  or  the 
mighty.  He  only  wished  they  possessed  his  peace 
and  joy.  “Love  vaunts  not  itself,  is  not  puffed 
up,  does  not  behave  itself  unseemly.”  He  knew 
this  to  be  so,  because  in  every  city  in  which  he 
had  labored,  he  could  say  as  he  said  to  the  Elders 
of  Ephesus — “You  yourselves  know  after  what 
manner  I  was  with  you  all  the  time,  serving  the 
Lord  with  all  lowliness  of  mind.”  “Seeks  not 
her  own,  is  not  provoked,  takes  not  account  of 
evil,  rejoices  not  in  unrighteousness  but  rejoices 
in  the  truth.”  He  was  sure  of  this  because  his 
own  love  had  followed  such  a  program.  When 
he  wrote,  “Love  bears  all  things,  believes  all 
things,  hopes  all  things,  endures  all  things,”  he 
was  dipping  his  pen  again  into  the  ink  of  his  own 
life.  He  could  write  “Love  never  fails,”  because 
his  own  love  had  never  proved  inadequate  to  its 
task.  Here  is  a  fountain  at  which  humanity  will 
in  each  succeeding  generation  pause  and  drink. 


334 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


Some  of  Paul’s  ideas  are  archaic.  Much  of 
his  system  of  thought  is  obsolete  or  obsolescent. 
But  in  his  love  he  is  modern.  The  lover  is  always 
up  to  date.  Love  never  fails  to  appeal.  The 
world  is  altogether  different  from  the  world 
which  Paul  knew,  but  our  modem  world  is  in 
sore  need  of  a  man  who  loves.  A  lover  is  at 
home  in  every  land  and  in  every  age.  Our  system 
of  thought  is  not  that  of  the  ancients,  but  the 
new  conceptions  of  science  have  not  crowded 
love  out.  There  is  room  among  the  cosmic  forces 
for  love.  We  pride  ourselves  on  our  knowledge 
of  law,  but  none  of  the  laws  of  creation  conflict 
with  the  law  of  love.  It  is  the  law  which  under¬ 
lies  and  overtops  all  the  others.  There  is  nothing 
which  the  world  so  much  needs  as  love.  The 
whole  creation  groans  and  throbs  in  pain  waiting 
for  the  advent  of  men  who  know  how  to  love. 
It  is  because  of  our  lack  of  love  that  the  wheels 
of  the  chariot  of  civilization  drag  heavily  in  the 
sand.  It  is  at  the  feet  of  Paul  the  lover  that  hu¬ 
manity  must  sit,  if  the  world  is  to  enter  into  life. 

Is  a  life  of  love  practicable  amid  modern  con¬ 
ditions?  Paul  answers  yes.  He  lived  a  life  of 
love  in  the  age  of  Nero.  He  lived  a  life  of  self- 
forgetful  service  in  Corinth  and  Athens  and 
Rome.  He  had  no  supernatural  origin  or  endow¬ 
ment,  no  miraculous  knowledge  or  reservoir  of 
power.  He  had  our  limitations  and  infirmities, 
wrestled  with  innumerable  problems  and  trials, 


HIS  LOVE 


335 


but  loved  everybody  and  found  that  love  never 
failed.  He  says — “Follow  me  as  I  follow 
Christ.”  He  is  not  an  infallible  dictator  or  a 
wonder-worker  or  a  demigod,  but  a  frail  and 
suffering  mortal  winning  his  way  by  courage  and 
patience,  loving  men  in  their  unlovelinsss,  sacri¬ 
ficing  for  them  however  suspicious  and  ungrate¬ 
ful,  suffering  long  and  yet  never  grumpy  or  sullen 
or  bitter,  always  kind.  Like  the  love  of  Christ, 
his  love  never  failed. 


XXIV 

HIS  RELIGIOUSNESS 


XXIV 


HIS  RELIGIOUSNESS 

We  arrive  now  at  the  center  of  Paul’s  charac¬ 
ter — his  religiousness.  The  deepest  thing  in  him, 
and  the  all-controlling  thing  was  his  religion. 
With  some  men,  religion  is  a  thing  apart,  with 
Paul  it  was  his  whole  existence.  Some  men  are 
religious  only  on  the  great  festival  days  of  the 
Church.  Others  are  religious  only  in  the  emer¬ 
gencies  of  life — the  hours  of  physical  danger,  or 
serious  illness,  or  approaching  death.  Paul  lived 
in  the  atmosphere  of  religion  every  hour  of  the 
day.  He  was  not  greatly  concerned  with  philos¬ 
ophy  or  literature  or  art,  with  business  or  politics 
or  diplomacy — his  supreme  concern  was  religion. 
No  portrait  of  him  is  complete  which  ignores  his 
life  in  God.  Without  religion  he  remains  an  in¬ 
soluble  enigma.  His  religion  was  the  mainspring 
of  his  conduct,  the  source  of  his  power.  He  was 
so  deeply  and  so  passionately  and  so  powerfully 
religious,  that  we  may  call  him  a  religious  genius. 

By  religion  we  mean  one’s  conscious  attitude 
to  God.  Paul  was  intensely  conscious  of  his  re- 


340 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


lation  to  the  Eternal.  In  God  he  lived  and  moved 
and  had  his  being,  not  unconsciously  as  with  most 
of  us,  but  consciously.  He  was  sure  of  God, 
sure  of  his  existence,  sure  of  his  personality, 
sure  of  his  goodness,  sure  of  his  active  partici¬ 
pation  in  human  affairs  in  general,  and  in  Paul’s 
affairs  in  particular.  God  had  set  him  apart  from 
his  very  birth  for  a  special  work.  God  had  chosen 
to  reveal  his  Son  in  him  that  he  might  preach 
to  the  Gentiles.  God  guided  him  day  by  day. 
He  spoke  to  him  sometimes  in  trances,  some¬ 
times  in  dreams,  sometimes  in  events,  and  some¬ 
times  in  the  impulses  and  inclinations  of  his  heart. 
God  was  in  him,  working  both  to  will  and  to  work 
for  his  own  good  pleasure.  Paul  saw  God  every¬ 
where.  He  is  the  great  giver.  “He  gives  to  all 
life  and  breath  and  all  things.”  He  is  the  ruler 
of  men.  Nations  belong  to  him,  and  are  held  in 
the  grip  of  his  purpose.  “God  has  made  of  one 
every  nation  to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth, 
and  has  determined  their  appointed  seasons,  and 
the  bounds  of  their  habitation.  He  is  not  far 
from  each  one  of  us.”  He  is  always  revealing 
himself  to  men.  He  revealed  himself  in  Hebrew 
prophets,  and  in  Greek  poets,  and  in  the  fruitful 
seasons,  and  in  the  ongoings  of  the  material  uni¬ 
verse,  and  in  the  fulness  of  time  he  revealed  him¬ 
self  in  his  Son  Jesus  Christ. 

In  all  God’s  dealings  with  men,  he  himself  takes 
the  first  step.  He  calls.  He  imparts  to  the  heart 


HIS  RELIGIOUSNESS 


341 


his  spirit.  He  prompts  man  to  pray.  He  helps 
man  to  get  rid  of  sin.  God  offers  the  necessary 
sacrifice.  “While  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ  died 
for  us.”  God  makes  his  abode  in  the  human 
heart.  His  spirit  bears  witness  wTith  our  spirit 
that  we  are  his  children.  It  is  Christ  in  us  who 
is  the  hope  of  glory.  Everything  in  our  posses¬ 
sion  is  a  divine  gift.  Grace  and  peace  and  power 
and  love,  all  come  to  us  from  God.  Paul’s  faith 
is  in  God.  His  hope  is  in  God.  His  commission 
comes  to  him  from  God.  This  consciousness  of 
God  flows  in  a  mighty  stream  underneath  the 
surface  of  Paul’s  life.  We  can  feel  the  rush  of 
it  even  when  it  does  not  break  into  view.  Paul 
is  mighty  in  argument,  but  he  is  ready  at  any 
instant  to  drop  his  argument  in  order  to  sing  a 
doxology.  “O  the  depth  of  the  riches  both  of  the 
wisdom  and  the  knowledge  of  God,  how  unsearch¬ 
able  are  his  judgments  and  his  ways  past  tracing 
out.  Of  him  and  through  him  and  unto  him  are 
all  things.  To  him  be  the  glory  forever.”  “Now 
unto  the  King  Eternal,  immortal,  invisible,  the 
only  God  be  honor  and  glory  forever  and  ever. 
Amen.” 

Because  he  is  religious,  he  loves  to  pray.  He 
is  always  speaking  with  God.  His  prayerfulness 
is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  features  of  his 
character.  No  one  can  read  the  New  Testament 
even  casually  without  being  impressed  by  the  place 
which  prayer  held  in  his  life.  No  controversy 


34 2  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

has  ever  risen  in  regard  to  that.  There  are  some 
things  which  lie  beyond  the  reach  of  debate,  and 
that  is  one  of  them.  Paul  was  a  man  of  prayer. 
Discrepancies  between  Paul’s  letters  and  the  Book 
of  Acts  have  been  exploited,  discrepancies  in  chro¬ 
nology  and  in  the  statement  of  historic  facts, 
but  there  is  no  discrepancy  between  the  character 
of  the  man  who  wrote  the  letters  and  the  man 
whom  Luke  describes  in  the  “Acts.”  In  both 
Paul  is  a  man  of  prayer.  Luke  tells  how  he 
kneeled  down  on  the  sand  at  Miletus  and  prayed 
with  the  elders  of  Ephesus,  and  how  on  leaving 
Tyre,  he  gathered  the  whole  company  about  him 
and  then  kneeled  down  and  prayed.  In  his  let¬ 
ters  he  is  always  kneeling  down  and  praying. 
Over  his  letters  and  over  the  Book  of  Acts  might 
appropriately  be  written  the  inscription — “Behold 
he  prays!”  Differences  between  the  Pastoral 
Epistles  and  the  other  ten  have  excited  contro¬ 
versy,  differences  in  vocabulary  and  phraseology 
and  viewpoint,  but  no  difference  has  been  discov¬ 
ered  in  the  writers’  attitude  to  prayer.  The  man 
who  wrote  the  Pastorals  was  as  prayerful  as  was 
the  man  who  wrote  the  letters  to  the  Romans  and 
to  the  Philippians.  There  are  troublesome  ques¬ 
tions  of  criticism  and  puzzling  questions  of  chron¬ 
ology  which  scholars  are  compelled  to  grapple 
with,  but  these  questions  do  not  touch  Paul’s  prac¬ 
tice  of  prayer.  There  is  nothing  more  certain 
in  the  whole  history  of  the  Christian  Church  than 


HIS  RELIGIOUSNESS 


343 

that  the  greatest  of  the  Apostles  was  a  man  who 
spent  much  time  in  communion  with  God. 

He  was  always  praying.  When  he  exhorted 
others  to  pray  without  ceasing,  he  was  only  urg¬ 
ing  them  to  follow  his  own  example.  He  tells 
Timothy  that  he  remembers  him  in  his  prayers 
night  and  day.  He  assures  the  Colossians — “We 
do  not  cease  to  pray  and  make  request  for  you.” 
He  is  always  praying  for  himself,  and  he  is 
always  praying  for  others.  His  prayer  for  others 
rises  like  a  fountain  night  and  day.  He  is 
always  praying  for  himself,  and  he  is  always 
carrying  his  congregations  to  the  throne  of 
grace.  We  can  see  what  he  was  in  the  habit  of 
praying  for  from  a  study  of  his  letter  to  the  Col¬ 
ossians.  “We  have  never  ceased  to  pray  for  you, 
asking  God  to  fill  you  with  the  knowledge  of  his 
will  in  all  spiritual  wisdom  and  insight,  so  that 
you  may  lead  a  life  that  is  worthy  of  the  Lord, 
and  give  him  entire  satisfaction.”  To  the  Philip- 
pians  he  wrote:  “It  is  my  prayer  that  your  love 
may  be  more  and  more  rich  in  knowledge  and  all 
manner  of  insight,  enabling  you  to  have  a  sense 
of  what  is  vital,  so  that  you  may  be  transparent 
and  no  harm  to  any  one  in  view  of  the  day  of 
Christ,  your  life  covered  with  that  harvest  of 
righteousness  which  Jesus  Christ  produces  to  the 
glory  and  the  praise  of  God.”  Whether  he  prays 
for  himself  or  for  others,  he  always  puts  at  the 
forefront  of  his  petitions — “Thy  Kingdom  come 


344 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


thy  will  be  done.”  It  is  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
advancement  of  his  Kingdom  which  is  the  domi¬ 
nant  desire  in  every  prayer.  His  prayers  were 
informal,  intimate,  spontaneous.  To  him  prayer 
is  filial  communion  with  God.  It  is  not  a  mono¬ 
logue  but  a  dialogue.  Man  speaks  and  God 
speaks  also.  In  his  address  to  the  Jerusalem  mob, 
Paul  relates  his  first  prayer  to  Jesus — It  was  a 
simple  question — “Who  art  thou,  Lord?”  and 
when  the  answer  came,  his  second  prayer  was 
also  a  question — “Lord  what  will  thou  have  me 
do?”  He  relates  one  of  his  prayers  in  the  tem¬ 
ple.  It  also  was  a  part  of  a  dialogue.  He  tells 
what  the  Lord  said,  and  then  what  he  himself 
said,  and  then  again  what  the  Lord  said.  Paul 
believed  that  God  can  and  does  speak  to  man,  and 
that  man  can  ascertain  by  direct  contact  with 
God,  the  divine  will.  Sometimes  Paul  did  not 
speak  at  all  in  his  praying.  There  are  prayers 
without  words.  Sometimes  the  word — “Father,” 
escaped  from  his  lips,  and  he  poured  into  lan¬ 
guage  the  desires  of  his  soul.  At  other  times  he 
was  dumb,  his  whole  personality  praying,  God  in 
him  yearning  and  pleading  with  sighs  that  could 
find  no  verbal  expression.  Sometimes  his  commu¬ 
nion  was  full  of  rapture,  and  his  soul  was  flooded 
with  a  peace  which  surpassed  all  understanding. 

In  his  prayers,  Paul’s  personality  stands  out 
with  vivid  distinctness.  All  the  traits  of  his  char¬ 
acter  are  illuminated,  as  it  were,  by  a  light  from 


HIS  RELIGIOUSNESS 


345 


above.  His  kindness,  tenderness,  unselfishness, 
loftiness,  nobility,  zeal,  magnanimity,  devotion, 
are  disclosed  in  all  their  rare  loveliness,  and  we 
catch  invaluable  glimpses  of  Paul’s  innermost  soul. 
In  his  prayers  we  have  a  revelation  from  heaven. 

Paul  loved  to  talk  about  religion.  His  reli¬ 
gious  experience  was  to  him  the  most  precious 
and  thrilling  part  of  his  life,  and  he  took  delight 
in  narrating  it  to  as  many  as  were  willing  to  lis¬ 
ten.  He  told  it  even  to  the  mob  which  wished  to 
tear  him  tO'  pieces.  He  rehearsed  it  in  Caesarea  to 
the  Roman  Procurator  and  the  Jewish  King. 
That  amazing  experience  was  behind  all  he 
thought  and  wrote  and  did.  It  was  there  that 
God  shone  into  his  heart,  and  he  saw  the  glory 
of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus.  From  that  hour, 
Paul  never  ceased  to  rejoice  in  talking  about  God. 
Whether  he  is  speaking  to  peasants  in  Lystra 
or  to  philosophers  in  Athens,  his  favorite  subject 
is  God.  “I  belong  to  him  and  I  serve  him  and 
I  believe  him” — so  he  proudly  said  to  the  men  on 
board  the  wrecked  vessel,  and  thus  did  he  by  his 
religion  quiet  hearts  which  were  full  of  panic  and 
bring  back  to  life  a  hope  that  was  dead. 

To  be  like  God  was  Paul’s  supreme  ambition. 
Many  a  man  has  made  it  his  chief  ambition  to 
flee  from  the  wrath  to  come.  Not  so  did  Paul. 
He  shows  no  fear  of  hell,  and  apparently  took  no 
interest  in  talking  about  it.  Punishment  holds  an 
inconspicuous  place  in  his  writings.  Many  devout 


346  CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 

men  have  made  the  bliss  of  the  blessed  their  life¬ 
long  quest.  Paul  did  not  seem  to  yearn  for  the 
joys  of  heaven.  It  is  not  happiness  either  in  this 
world  or  the  next  which  he  longs  for,  but  God¬ 
likeness.  He  wants  to  partake  of  the  divine  na¬ 
ture.  His  burning  desire  is  to  become  a  man  full 
statured  in  God’s  sight.  He  has  no  other  ambi¬ 
tion  than  to  be  the  kind  of  man  which  God  had 
in  his  mind  when  God  called  him  to  be  the  serv¬ 
ant  of  his  Son.  The  goal  of  all  his  efforts  is  the 
winning  of  the  prize  of  a  character  like  unto  the 
character  of  Christ.  To  know  him  and  the  power 
of  his  resurrection  and  the  fellowship  of  his  suf¬ 
fering,  and  to  be  with  him  forever,  that  to  Paul 
is  heaven. 

His  work  was  religious — persuading  men  to 
become  acquainted  with  God  in  Christ.  His  con¬ 
stant  exhortation  was,  “We  beseech  you  on  be¬ 
half  of  Christ,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God.”  His 
work  is  accurately  described  in  his  words  to  the 
Colossians:  “We  proclaim  Christ,  admonishing 
every  man,  and  teaching  every  man  in  all  wis¬ 
dom  that  we  may  present  every  man  complete  in 
Christ.” 

Out  of  Paul’s  religious  experience  came  his 
theology.  A  man’s  theology  is  the  intellectual  in¬ 
terpretation  of  his  spiritual  experience,  the  ex¬ 
planation  of  what  his  heart  has  felt  and  known. 
Paul  came  to  know  God  in  a  new  way  through 
Christ,  and  therefore  Paul’s  theology  is  a  Christ- 


HIS  RELIGIOUSNESS 


347 


ology.  The  central  word  in  his  vocabulary  is 
“Christ.”  He  lives  in  Christ.  He  can  do  all 
things  in  Christ.  It  is  Christ  who  lives  in  him. 
It  is  Christ  with  whom  he  longs  to  dwell  forever. 
All  of  this  came  out  of  his  experience  near  the 
Damascus  gate.  It  was  there  that  he  saw  Christ. 
He  saw  that  Christ  loved  him.  This  awakened 
in  him  a  passionate  love  for  Christ.  Old  things 
passed  away,  all  things  became  new.  His  whole 
nature  was  transformed.  Love  took  the  place  of 
law.  Liberty  supplanted  bondage.  The  spirit  of 
a  son  took  complete  possession  of  him.  A  new 
power  throbbed  in  him.  The  one  who  could  do 
all  this  must  be  divine.  God  is  in  Christ  recon¬ 
ciling  the  world  to  himself.  Christ  is  the  image 
of  the  invisible  God.  In  Christ  there  dwells  all 
the  fulness  of  the  godhead.  If  God  is  in  Christ, 
then  the  death  of  Christ  is  not  a  sign  of  failure 
but  of  triumph.  It  seems  weakness  but  it  is  the 
power  of  God.  It  appears  foolishness,  but  it  is 
the  wisdom  of  God.  It  is  by  the  cross  of  Christ 
that  God  is  going  to  save  the  world. 

Through  Christ  Paul  came  into  a  series  of  new 
experiences;  he  found  himself  in  possession  of 
peace,  and  power,  of  hope  and  love  and  joy. 
These  must  have  a  divine  source.  They  must 
come  from  God.  And  therefore  God  is  a  God 
of  peace  and  of  power,  of  hope  and  love  and  joy. 
Because  of  the  stream  of  comfort  which  flows 
through  Paul’s  heart  in  the  midst  of  all  his  tribu- 


34^ 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


lations  he  knows  that  God  is  the  God  of  all  com¬ 
fort.  God  is  the  father  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
This  is  the  God  who  must  be  interpreted  to  men. 
The  crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  must 
be  considered  parts  of  a  vast  plan.  The  world’s 
experience  must  be  explained  in  the  light  of  this 
new  conception  of  Deity.  The  ways  of  God  with 
the  Jews  and  with  the  Gentiles  must  be  justified 
at  the  bar  of  human  reason.  Paul  had  to  become 
a  theologian  because  he  had  a  rich  religious  ex¬ 
perience  and  an  alert  and  active  mind.  Some  of 
his  theological  theories  do  not  appeal  to  us,  and 
some  of  his  theological  arguments  seem  weak. 
He  had  to  use  the  language  of  the  world  he  was 
living  in.  He  had  to  meet  the  problems  with 
what  philosophical  equipment  he  possessed.  Be¬ 
cause  his  training  was  what  it  was,  and  his  pre¬ 
suppositions  and  conceptions  were  what  they  were, 
his  theology  took  on  a  form  which  bore  the  stamp 
of  a  world  which  has  passed  away.  Theology 
changes  from  age  to  age,  but  religion  in  its  es¬ 
sence  runs  on  forever.  Theology  is  the  dialect 
which  the  intellect  makes  use  of  in  explaining  to 
itself  what  the  heart  has  experienced.  What  the 
heart  feels  in  relation  to  God  is  religion.  Paul’s 
Biblical  exegesis  and  his  theories  of  the  fall  of 
Adam,  and  original  sin,  and  election,  and  im¬ 
puted  righteousness  may  all  pass  away,  but  his 
religion  will  abide.  His  devotion  to  Christ,  his 
certainty  of  acceptance  with  God,  his  assurance 


HIS  RELIGIOUSNESS 


343 


of  forgiveness,  his  experience  of  spiritual  free¬ 
dom,  his  enjoyment  of  peace  and  gladness,  his 
bold  confidence  in  ultimate  victory  for  himself 
and  for  all  mankind,  his  thanksgiving  to  God,  his 
adoration  of  God,  his  surrender  to  God  in  Christ 
— these  constitute  an  indestructible  part  of  the 
spiritual  wealth  of  the  world,  and  will  be  repro¬ 
duced  in  the  experience  of  men  through  all  gen¬ 
erations. 

Paul  based  morality  on  religious  foundations. 
It  is  because  God  is  what  he  is,  that  men  ought 
to  live  as  Jesus  lived.  “I  beseech  you,  therefore, 
brothers,  by  the  mercies  of  God  to  present  your 
bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy  and  acceptable  to 
God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service.”  “I,  there¬ 
fore,  the  prisoner  of  the  Lord,  beseech  you  to 
walk  worthily  of  the  calling  wherewith  ye  were 
called.”  Men  ought  not  to  sin  against  their  body, 
because  their  body  is  a  temple  of  God.  They 
ought  to  speak  the  truth,  because  they  are  mem¬ 
bers  one  of  another.  They  ought  to  be  generous 
in  their  giving,  because  Christ  for  their  sake  be¬ 
came  poor.  They  should  do  nothing  through  fac¬ 
tion  or  vainglory  but  in  lowliness  of  mind,  be¬ 
cause  Christ  took  the  form  of  a  servant  and  be¬ 
came  obedient  unto  death.  First  the  vision,  then 
the  task.  First  the  truth,  then  the  duty.  First 
God,  then  an  obedient  life.  Paul  knows  of  no 
enduring  morality  except  through  religion. 

Our  age  is  not  religious.  The  multitudes  are 


350 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


not  thinking  about  God.  They  are  interested  in 
the  cosmic  forces  and  in  natural  law,  but  their 
personal  relation  to  their  Maker  does  not  greatly 
concern  them.  They  do  not  want  to  be  bothered 
with  God.  God  seems  to  be  a  needless  hypothe¬ 
sis.  The  doctrine  of  evolution  is  attractive  to 
many  because  it  seems  to  get  rid  of  God.  There 
is  a  widespread  desire  to  give  God  as  little  to  do 
as  possible.  People  nominally  religious  are  in 
many  cases  not  religious  in  their  interior  life. 
Organized  religion  is  more  and  more  philan¬ 
thropic.  Men  work  for  the  town  with  more  zeal 
than  they  commune  with  God.  Social  activities 
give  deeper  satisfaction  than  worship.  The  con¬ 
sequences  are  known.  Private  prayer  is  widely 
discarded  or  endured  as  a  ceremony  which  is 
wearisome.  Public  worship  lacks  emotional 
power.  Hymns  of  adoration  are  cold  on  the  lips, 
and  prayers  of  thanksgiving  do  not  spring  spon¬ 
taneously  from  the  heart.  The  outstanding  fea¬ 
ture  of  the  Church  is  its  impotency  in  the  field  in 
which  mighty  works  need  to  be  done.  Minor 
matters  are  attended  to  with  success,  but  the  great 
things  are  left  unaccomplished.  Class  hatred, 
race  prejudice,  national  antagonism — these  are 
demons  working  havoc  with  the  world’s  life, 
and  the  Church  cannot  cast  them  out.  Demons 
of  that  sort  are  cast  out  only  by  religion.  In 
large  areas  of  society,  morality  is  in  a  state  of 
decadence,  because  the  religious  foundations  have 


HIS  RELIGIOUSNESS 


351 


crumbled.  Only  religion  can  save  mankind  from 
ruin.  Religion  is  the  one  hope  of  the  world. 
The  present  greatest  need  of  humanity  is  relig¬ 
ion.  Only  a  religious  man  can  inspire  others  to 
become  religious.  We  need  Paul.  He  was  relig¬ 
ious  after  a  high  and  noble  fashion.  Human  in 
every  fiber  of  his  being,  he  lived  close  both  to 
God  and  to  man,  serving  men  in  all  ways  which 
were  open  to  him,  heartening  them  by  his  faith, 
cheering  them  by  his  hope,  quickening  them  by 
his  love,  because  his  life  was  hid  with  Christ  in 
God. 


XXV 

HIS  LOVABLENESS 


XXV 


HIS  LOVABLENESS 

One  question  remains — was  Paul  lovable? 
We  know  he  was  able,  clever,  brilliant,  but  was 
he  winsome?  We  concede  he  was  a  saint,  but 
was  he  likable?  Some  saints  are  not  agreeable. 
We  acknowledge  he  had  many  virtues,  but  vir¬ 
tuous  people  are  not  always  attractive.  They 
bore  us  by  their  virtues.  We  confess  he  was  a 
man  of  high  principles,  but  men  with  high  prin¬ 
ciples  can  be  totally  lacking  in  charm.  We  know 
he  was  strong,  but  was  he  beautiful?  We  are 
sure  he  was  full  of  energy,  but  was  he  full  of 
grace?  We  are  confident  he  was  brave,  but  was 
he  lovely?  There  is  no  doubt  he  was  great,  but 
so  also  was  Napoleon  I.  great,  and  we  hate  him. 
Thomas  Aquinas  and  John  Calvin  were  great, 
but  who  cares  for  them?  He  was  interesting, 
even  fascinating,  but  can  we  give  him  our  heart? 
Would  you  like  him  if  you  saw  him?  Would  you 
want  to  be  where  he  was?  Would  the  room  seem 
different  if  he  came  into  it?  When  he  left  you, 
would  the  sunshine  seem  less  bright?  Would 


355 


356 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


you  look  forward  with  eager  heart  to  seeing  him 
again  ? 

The  artists  have  not  greatly  helped  us  to  love 
Paul.  Some  one  who  is  familiar  with  the  whole 
realm  of  Christian  art  has  said  that  among  all 
the  representations  of  Paul,  there  is  not  one  on 
which  the  imagination  can  rest  with  satisfaction. 
His  portrait  is  not  often  found  on  the  walls  of 
Christian  homes. 

The  scholars  on  the  whole  have  not  helped  us 
to  love  him.  They  have  presented  him  as  a  logi¬ 
cian,  and  logic  is  cold  as  ice.  They  have  taught 
us  to  think  of  him  as  a  dogmatist,  always  con¬ 
tending  for  his  favorite  dogma  of  justification 
by  faith,  and  dogmatists  are  not  magnetic.  They 
have  painted  him  as  mighty  in  argument  and  con¬ 
troversy,  with  the  result  that  we  think  of  him  as 
an  intellectual  warrior,  a  theological  wrestler,  a 
strenuous  gladiator  of  Christ.  They  have  said  so 
much  about  him  as  a  thinker,  that  we  instinc¬ 
tively  look  up  to  him  as  one  belonging  to  another 
sphere.  He  stands  upon  a  lofty  pedestal,  and  we 
gaze  upon  him  with  admiration.  He  is  in  the  cal¬ 
endar  of  the  saints,  and  we  revere  him.  He  is  in 
the  books  of  the  scholars,  and  we  speak  his  name 
with  veneration.  We  bow  low  to  him,  and  pass 
on.  It  is  doubtful  if  any  class  of  persons  in  our 
modern  world  have  any  genuine  love  for  him. 
The  boys  and  girls  are  not  fond  of  him,  nor  do 
college  students  carry  a  copy  of  his  letters  in 


HIS  LOVABLENESS 


357 


their  pocket,  nor  do  men  of  business  feel  drawn 
to  him,  nor  do  housewives  take  delight  in  him, 
nor  is  he  the  idol  of  the  millions  who  toil  in  fac¬ 
tory  and  mill,  mine  and  field,  office  and  shop.  He 
has  never  found  a  place  among  the  world’s  popu¬ 
lar  heroes. 

There  are  those  who  assert  he  was  not  lovable. 
They  set  him  before  us  as  the  most  unlovely  of 
all  the  characters  of  early  Christian  history.  They 
say  he  was  egotistical  and  self-assertive— always 
talking  about  himself.  They  declare  he  was  auto¬ 
cratic  and  domineering,  always  determined  to 
have  his  own  way.  They  assert  he  was  jealous 
of  the  great  Apostles,  always  carping  at  them  and 
trying  to  undermine  their  authority.  They  accuse 
him  of  being  harsh  in  his  judgments  and  bitter 
in'  his  language.  They  condemn  him  as  a  fanatic 
and  bigot,  unscrupulous  in  method  and  selfish  in 
temper,  a  character  not  only  without  attraction 
but  repulsive  and  detestable.  These  are  things 
written  in  books,  vouched  for  by  men  of  reputed 
learning,  and  when  the  man  in  the  pew  falls  in 
with  one  of  these  illustrious  detractors  of  Paul, 
he  is  bewildered,  not  knowing  what  to  think  or 
say. 

When  one  is  listening  to  a  man  who  claims  to 
understand  Paul,  it  is  well  to  keep  one’s  eyes  on 
the  Book  of  the  Acts  and  the  Pauline  Epistles. { 
No  scholar  knows  any  more  about  Paul  than  the 
New  Testament  tells  him.  Whatever  unlovely 


358 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


traits  Paul  possessed,  are  fully  revealed  in  his 
letters.  All  other  disagreeable  features  exploited 
in  the  books  come  out  of  the  imagination  of  Paul’s 
critics.  The  picture  of  Paul  often  exhibited  is  a 
mixture  of  assumption  and  inference.  The  real 
Paul  is  portrayed  in  the  New  Testament.  No 
scholar  of  our  time  can  get  nearer  to  him  than 
the  text  of  the  New  Testament  allows.  The  lit¬ 
tle  book  by  Luke  is  worth  more  than  all  the 
books  ever  written  in  answering  the  question, 
whether  Paul’s  personality  was  lovable  or  not. 
To  Luke,  Paul  seemed  altogether  lovely,  and 
Luke  knew  him.  He  was  his  traveling  compan¬ 
ion.  He  had  been  with  him  on  land  and  sea.  He 
had  been  his  comrade  in  many  a  trying  expe¬ 
rience.  He  had  worked  by  his  side  in  evangelis¬ 
tic  campaigns.  He  had  eaten  with  him,  talked 
with  him,  prayed  with  him,  and  walked  with  him 
hundreds  of  miles.  What  does  any  modern 
writer  know  of  Paul  compared  with  what  Luke 
knew  ?  Why  should  any  one  give  heed  to  a  mod¬ 
ern  German  or  Frenchman  or  Dutchman  or  Briton 
or  American  in  preference  to  Luke?  The  man 
who  contradicts  Luke  on  any  point  touching 
Paul’s  personality,  is  not  a  man  worth  listening 
to.  Luke  was  so  devoted  to  Paul,  that  he  was 
willing  to  share  with  him  endless  hardships  and 
perils.  He  was  glad  to  stay  near  him  when  Paul 
was  in  prison.  He  was  eager  to  accompany  him 
to  Rome,  even  with  Nero  on  the  throne.  To 


HIS  LOVABLENESS 


359 


Demas  the  world  proved  more  attractive  than 
Paul,  but  to  Luke  the  whole  world  was  as  noth¬ 
ing  compared  with  his  friend.  Luke  was  faith¬ 
ful  to  Paul  to  the  end.  This  is  the  supreme  test 
of  love,  loyalty  till  death.  Luke  tells  us  of  other 
men  who  also  were  devoted  to  Paul.  The  Elders 
of  Ephesus  loved  him  with  a  love  which  neither 
words  nor  embraces  nor  tears  could  express. 
They  had  known  Paul  intimately  and  for  years. 
They  had  received  him  into  their  homes  and  into 
their  hearts.  They  could  not  say  goodbye  to  him 
without  weeping.  The  thought  that  they  might 
never  see  him  again  took  the  sun  out  of  the  sky. 
The  caricature  sketched  by  a  certain  school  of 
modern  Biblical  theorizers  has  no  point  of  resem¬ 
blance  to  the  winsome  and  lovable  man  painted 
by  Luke.  If  Paul  was  disagreeable  and  odious, 
how  can  we  account  for  his  influence  ?  Why  was 
Timothy  willing  to  leave  his  home  in  Lystra  and 
follow  a  comparative  stranger,  only  God  knew 
whither?  Why  were  his  mother  and  grand¬ 
mother  willing  to  have  him  go?  Powerful  must 
have  been  the  charm  of  a  man  who  could  thus 
draw  a  youth  away  from  his  home,  and  launch 
him  on  such  a  perilous  career.  Timothy  was 
only  one  of  many  who  were  won  and  held  by  the 
magic  of  Paul’s  personality.  Silas  left  all  and 
followed  him.  He  was  ready  to  follow  him 
through  dangers  and  imprisonments  and  flog¬ 
gings.  With  Paul  by  his  side  he  could  sing,  even 


360 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


in  a  jail  with  his  feet  fast  in  the  stocks.  Titus 
also  was  held  in  a  love-grip  which  he  could  not 
escape.  To  minister  to  Paul  was  to  him  life  and 
joy.  No  errand  was  too  long  or  too  difficult,  and 
no  burden  was  too  heavy  to  bear.  He  was  even 
willing  to  undertake  the  thankless  task  of  at¬ 
tempting  to  bring  the  Cretans  into  subjection  to 
Christ.  Paul  was  not  able  to  offer  his  assistants 
any  earthly  reward.  Money  had  he  none.  Posi¬ 
tions  of  honor  were  not  his  to  give.  Comfort 
and  ease  he  could  not  offer.  Even  life  itself  he 
could  not  promise.  A  quarrelsome  and  censor¬ 
ious  egotist  cannot  get  men  to  work  for  him  on 
such  terms.  These  men  must  have  fallen  in  love 
with  Paul.  There  is  no  other  explanation  of  their 
conduct.  We  are  ready  to  do  anything,  no  mat¬ 
ter  how  hard,  for  those  we  love.  The  disciples 
of  Jesus  were  not  daunted  by  the  direful  things 
he  said  awaited  them  because  of  their  great  love 
for  him.  The  disciples  of  Paul  were  ready  to  go 
with  him  to  prison  and  death  because  they  loved 
him  so.  Prisca  and  Aquila  were  not  the  only  ones 
who  risked  their  necks  for  his  sake.  The  Gala¬ 
tians  were  not  the  only  people  who  would  have 
dug  out  their  eyes  to  give  him.  The  Philippians 
were  not  the  only  ones  who  followed  him  with 
loving  thoughts  in  all  his  tribulations  and 
labors.  A  censorious  and  unscrupulous  autocrat 
cannot  awaken  devotion  like  that.  Those 
\vho  today  disparage  him  are  prejudiced  pe- 


HIS  LOVABLENESS 


361 

dants,  perverse  theorists,  who  are  ignorant  of 
psychology  and  reckless  in  their  scorn  of  facts. 
The  New  Testament  makes  it  clear  to  all  who 
have  eyes  to  see,  that  Paul  was  a  man  of  extra¬ 
ordinary  attractiveness  to  those  who  had  the  best 
opportunity  of  becoming  acquainted  with  him. 
It  was  true  then  as  it  is  now,  that  men  disliked 
him  because  they  did  not  know  him. 

If  he  is  worthy  of  our  love,  it  is  important  that 
we  should  love  him.  If  we  do  not  love  him,  we 
are  the  losers.  Not  until  we  love  him  can  he  do 
for  us  what  he  is  able  to  do.  It  is  only  the  peo¬ 
ple  whom  we  love  who  really  enter  into  our  lives. 
It  is  by  loving  men  that  we  come  to  love  God. 
Paul  came  to  love  God  because  he  fell  in  love 
with  Jesus.  Many  came  to  love  Jesus  because 
they  fell  in  love  with  Paul.  It  was  not  the  ideas 
of  Jesus  but  Jesus  himself  who  won  Paul,  and  it 
was  not  the  ideas  of  Paul  but  Paul  himself  who 
won  Timothy  and  Titus  and  Silas  and  all  the 
rest.  It  is  not  the  doctrines  of  Paul  but  the  man 
Paul  who  can  help  us  most  in  doing  our  work  and 
living  our  life. 

The  fact  that  he  was  loved  is  proof  that  he 
was  lovable.  If  he  had  not  been  lovable,  he  would 
not  have  been  loved.  He  made  men  love  him  sim¬ 
ply  by  being  himself.  They  could  not  help  lov¬ 
ing  him,  when  once  they  knew  him.  He  is  as 
lovable  now  as  he  was  then.  He  has  a  multitude 
of  traits  which  woo  the  heart.  He  wins  by  his 


362 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


candor.  He  is  not  seclusive  or  even  reserved. 
He  speaks  out.  He  has  the  naivete  of  a  child. 
He  blurts  out  whatever  is  in  his  heart.  He  is  not 
ashamed  to  tell  the  whole  story  of  his  interior 
life.  We  like  him  because  he  is  so  human.  He 
is  surprisingly  like  ourselves.  He  is  impul¬ 
sive.  He  sometimes  says  more  than  he  means. 
His  feelings  run  away  with  him.  He  gets 
into  trouble  by  his  quick  temper  and  his 
hasty  speech.  He  has  to  apologize,  repent,  and 
start  over.  We  cannot  help  being  fond  of  him, 
because  of  his  grit  and  pluck.  He  is  always 
struggling  with  opposing  circumstances,  but  he 
never  succumbs.  He  may  be  disappointed,  but 
he  does  not  turn  back.  He  may  be  discouraged, 
but  he  does  not  lie  down.  He  may  be  unjustly 
treated,  but  he  does  not  become  sour.  He  may 
be  knocked  down,  but  he  never  surrenders.  He 
is  always  ready  to  get  up  and  push  on. 

We  feel  akin  to  him  because  he  could  become 
sarcastic,  and,  if  pushed  too  far,  could  cover  a 
man  all  over  with  blistering  speech.  There  is 
enough  of  that  in  us  to  make  us  feel  that  Paul 
is  our  brother.  He  is  good,  but  he  is  not  too  good 
for  human  nature’s  daily  food.  We  like  him 
because  he  could  make  a  fool  of  himself.  That 
seems  to  put  him  in  our  class.  We  enjoy  the 
tone  in  which  he  says — “I  am  not  a  whit  behind 
the  very  chiefest  Apostles.”  There  are  times 
when  Paul  felt  he  was  just  as  good  as  anybody, 


HIS  LOVABLENESS 


363 


and  he  did  not  hesitate  to  say  so.  We  have  had 
the  same  feeling  ourself,  and  we  like  him  all  the 
more  because  he  is  so  thoroughly  human. 

We  like  him  because  of  his  cleverness  in  elud¬ 
ing  his  foes.  We  enjoy  seeing  him  take  to  his 
heels.  When  we  see  him  in  that  basket  escaping 
from  Damascus,  we  want  to  laugh.  It  seems 
absurd  for  a  hero  of  the  faith  to  be  smuggled 
out  of  a  city  in  a  basket !  When  we  see  him  slip¬ 
ping  away  in  the  darkness  out  of  the  city  of 
Thessalonica,  we  forget  he  is  a  saint,  he  seems  so 
much  like  a  character  in  some  modern  novel.  It 
is  fine  to  see  with  what  dexterity  a  theologian 
can  run  away  from  a  mob.  When  he  escapes  from 
Beroea  by  a  trick  we  are  delighted.  He  pretended 
he  was  going  East,  but  he  suddenly  started 
South,  and  it  was  only  when  he  was  out  of  their 
reach,  that  his  enemies  discovered  how  completely 
he  had  outwitted  them.  At  a  later  time,  he  got 
ahead  of  a  gang  of  assassins  who  had  made  all 
their  plans  to  kill  him.  They  were  to  kill  him 
on  a  ship,  but  instead  of  going  by  water  he  went 
by  land,  and  when  they  were  ready  to  do  their 
bloody  work,  they  found  that  their  victim  was 
far  away.  Paul  must  have  enjoyed  these  adven¬ 
tures  himself.  Why  should  not  an  inspired  Apos¬ 
tle  chuckle? 

His  sufferings  endear  him  to  us.  When  Othello 
told  the  story  of  his  hardships,  “of  disastrous 
chances,  and  moving  incidents  by  flood  and  field, 


364 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


and  hairbreadth  escapes,  and  the  distressful 
strokes  that  his  youth  suffered,”  Desdemona  gave 
him  for  his  pains  a  world  of  sighs  and  ended  by 
falling  in  love  with  him.  There  is  a  Desdemona 
in  us  all,  and  we  cannot  hear  Paul  tell  of  his  ad¬ 
ventures  and  distresses  without  taking  him  into 
our  heart  of  hearts.  It  is  in  his  sufferings,  that 
the  soul  of  Paul  shines  in  its  brightest  loveliness^ 
It  is  when  the  furnace  is  the  hottest,  that  he 
seems  most  like  a  son  of  God.  It  is  when  men 
are  doing  their  worst  that  he  is  at  his  best.  It 
is  when  human  hate  is  fiercest,  that  his  love  is 
must  conspicuously  divine.  We  love  him  because 
he  is  able  to  surmount  obstacles,  and  conquer  dif¬ 
ficulties,  and  vanquish  his  moods,  and  bear  pain, 
and  endure  agony,  and  come  off  triumphant. 

He  had  all  the  virtues  and  he  possessed  also  all 
the  graces.  It  is  the  gentler  side  of  his  nature 
which  surprises  us  by  its  extent  and  loveliness. 
He  was  indeed  a  soldier,  but  his  experience  did 
not  coarsen  him,  for  the  weapons  of  his  warfare 
were  not  carnal.  He  was  a  fighter,  but  his  fight¬ 
ing  did  not  make  him  rough.  He  was  at  his  best 
in  the  realm  of  courtesy.  Of  considerateness,  he 
was  a  paragon.  Tender  and  gracious,  thought¬ 
ful  and  generous,  noble  and  loyal,  he  was  a  gen¬ 
tleman  trained  and  embellished  in  the  school  of 
Christ.  There  was  nothing  petty  in  him  or  mean, 
nothing  underhanded  or  low,  nothing  ungener¬ 
ous  or  spiteful.  His  impulses  were  noble,  his 


HIS  LOVABLENESS 


365 


aims  were  high.  Like  his  master  he  went  about 
doing  good.  It  was  his  ambition  to  help  others. 
He  made  himself  of  no  reputation.  He  took 
upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant.  He  became 
obedient  unto  death.  And  so  God  has  highly 
exalted  him,  and  given  him  a  name  which  will 
shine  like  the  stars  forever. 

Paul  was  one  of  the  greatest  lovers  of  all  time. 
His  crowning  gift  was  his  capacity  for  love.  His 
highest  joy  was  derived  from  loving.  Emerson 
says  that  all  mankind  loves  a  lover.  How  then 
can  we  help  loving  Paul?  He  loved  and  he 
wanted  to  be  loved.  It  was  not  enough  for  him 
to  be  understood.  He  craved  love.  It  did  not 
satisfy  him  to  be  respected,  or  admired,  or  re¬ 
vered.  He  could  be  satisfied  only  with  love. 
All  he  pleaded  for  was  love.  Thus  far  he  has 
been  considered  by  the  majority  of  Christians  as 
a  man  to  be  understood.  To  understand  him  has 
been  the  ambition  of  those  who  have  given  him 
most  attention.  Men  have  prided  themselves  on 
their  ability  to  understand  him.  But  to  under¬ 
stand  him  is  not  enough.  He  is  a  man  to  be 
loved.  It  is  one  of  the  tragedies  of  history,  that 
he  has  been  loved  so  little.  His  tomb  is  beneath 
St.  Paul’s  without  the  walls,  and  some  one  has 
truly  said  that  even  unto  this  day  the  man  re¬ 
mains  “outside  the  walls.”  The  Church  has  not 
yet  taken  him  in.  The  individual  Christian  al¬ 
lows  him  to  remain  outside  his  heart.  But  like 


366 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


his  Master,  he  stands  at  the  door  and  knocks. 
What  he  said  to  the  Corinthians,  he  says  to  us 
— “I  seek  not  yours  but  you.  I  will  most  gladly 
spend  and  be  spent  for  your  souls.”  The  ques¬ 
tion  which  he  addressed  to  the  Corinthians,  he 
addresses  also  to  us — “If  I  love  you  more  abun¬ 
dantly,  am  I  loved  the  less?”  His  appeal  to  the 
Corinthians  is  the  appeal  which  he  makes  through 
all  the  generations — “My  heart  is  wide  open  for 
you — open  your  hearts  wide  to  mej” 


XXVI 

HIS  GREATNESS 


XXVI 


HIS  GREATNESS 

It  is  difficult  to  define  greatness,  but  we  can 
easily  recognize  a  great  man  when  we  see  one. 
We  have  no  trouble  in  seeing  that  Shakespeare 
is  a  great  poet,  and  that  Angelo  is  a  great  archi¬ 
tect,  and  that  Raphael  is  a  great  painter,  and  that 
Mozart  is  a  great  musician,  and  that  Pasteur  is 
a  great  scientist,  and  that  Gladstone  is  a  great 
statesman,  and  that  Napoleon  is  a  great  general, 
nor  do  we  hesitate  to  say  that  Paul  is  a  great 
man.  He  is  the  only  man  in  the  New  Testament, 
except  Jesus,  whom  we  would  immediately  enroll 
among  the  great. 

That  he  was  an  extraordinary  personality  is 
proved  by  the  commotion  he  stirred  up  in  his  own 
lifetime.  The  finest  testimony  to  his  phenome¬ 
nal  force  recorded  in  the  New  Testament,  is 
what  the  Thessalonians  said  about  him  and  Silas. 
They  said  they  were  men  who  “turned  the  whole 
world  upside  down.”  It  was  Paul  and  not  Silas 
who  brought  against  them  this  serious  arraign¬ 
ment.  No  one  ever  accused  Silas  of  upsetting 
the  world  when  Silas  was  alone.  Paul  was  the 

369 


370 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


upsetter.  Barnabas  was  once  taken  for  a  god, 
but  it  was  when  he  was  a  companion  of  Paul. 
He  was  never  suspected  of  being  a  god  after  he 
left  Paul’s  side.  It  was  the  personality  of  Paul 
and  not  of  Barnabas  which  made  the  people  of 
Lystra  feel  that  they  were  entertaining  visitors 
from  heaven.  The  only  bonfire  mentioned  in  the 
New  Testament  is  the  bonfire  in  Ephesus.  It 
was  kindled  by  Paul.  Ten  thousand  dollars’, 
worth  of  books  were  burned  up  by  their  owners 
who  had  outgrown  them,  because  of  the  teaching 
of  the  Apostle.  He  kindled  conflagrations  wher¬ 
ever  he  went.  He  filled  synagogues  with  com¬ 
motion,  and  set  cities  blazing.  He  stirred  up 
riots,  and  drove  mobs  frantic.  In  Athens  the 
philosophers  gathered  round  him.  On  shipboard, 
in  time  of  storm,  he  overtopped  the  Captain.  It 
was  in  the  city  in  which  he  preached,  that  the  fol¬ 
lowers  of  Jesus  were  first  called  Christians.  It 
was  through  him  more  than  any  other  man  that 
Antioch  supplanted  Jerusalem  as  the  capital  of 
the  Christian  world.  Jerusalem  with  Peter,  James 
and  John  in  it  was  no  match  for  Antioch  as  long 
as  Paul  was  there.  It  was  from  Antioch,  and  not 
from  Jerusalem,  that  messengers  went  forth  to 
win  the  world  for  Christ.  By  the  vigor  of  his 
faith,  the  intensity  of  his  devotion,  the  fulness 
of  his  sacrifice,  the  passion  of  his  enthusiasm, 
and  the  scope  of  his  achievement,  he  cast  all  other 
Apostles  and  Prophets  and  Pastors  and  Teachers 


HIS  GREATNESS 


371 

into  the  shade,  and  became  the  central  figure  of 
the  Christian  world. 

After  his  death,  Paul  did  not  become  less,  but 
more.  Death  added  new  cubits  to  his  stature. 
He  began  to  mould  men  more  and  more  through 
his  writings.  The  New  Testament  is  a  witness 
to  his  greatness.  He  wrote  a  quarter  of  it,  and 
a  Gentile  physician  whom  he  mightily  influenced, 
wrote  another  quarter  of  it.  More  than  one-half 
of  the  New  Testament  is  due  to  Paul.  Who  de¬ 
cided  that  thirteen  letters  of  Paul  should  be  ad¬ 
mitted  into  the  New  Testament  canon?  Not 
Paul  himself,  or  any  of  Paul’s  friends.  It  was 
not  settled  in  Paul’s  lifetime,  but  long  after  his 
death.  It  was  not  decided  by  any  one  man,  nor 
by  any  group  of  men,  nor  by  any  one  church,  nor 
by  any  special  group  of  churches.  It  was  not 
decided  on  any  one  day  in  any  one  year,  nor  in 
any  decade  of  years.  It  was  a  decision  arrived 
at  slowly  and  deliberately  and  impartially  by  the 
unfettered  operation  of  many  minds  extended 
through  a  long  series  of  years.  It  was  not  the 
decision  of  any  church  synod  or  council,  of  any 
high  ecclesiastical  official  or  hierarchy  of  offi¬ 
cials,  but  the  mature  and  reasoned  judgment  of 
the  whole  Christian  people.  There  came  about 
in  the  course  of  a  hundred  years,  a  general  con¬ 
sensus  of  feeling  that  thirteen  of  Paul’s  letters 
deserved  a  place  among  the  writings  to  be  made 
use  of  in  Christian  congregations.  They  won 


372 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


their  place  by  the  sheer  force  of  their  merit. 
They  were  chosen  because  they  were  worthy. 
They  survived  because  they  were  fit.  Multitudes 
of  documents  were  written  by  Christian  writers 
within  the  first  hundred  years  after  the  death  of 
Jesus,  but  only  twenty-seven  of  them  found  their 
way  into  general  acceptance  among  Christian  be¬ 
lievers.  Out  of  hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  of 
letters  only  twenty-one  were  given  a  place  in- 
the  collection  generally  used  in  the  churches,  and 
all  but  eight  of  the  twenty-one  were  written  by 
Paul.  This  is  astonishing  when  one  remembers 
that  there  were  eleven  men  who  apparently  had 
a  better  right  to  contribute  to  the  volume  of  Holy 
Scripture  to  be  used  by  the  Christian  congrega¬ 
tions  than  Paul.  Peter  especially  had  every  ex¬ 
ternal  advantage  over  Paul.  He  was  one  of  the 
original  Twelve,  and  the  foremost  member  of  that 
immortal  company.  He  was  one  of  the  three 
most  intimate  friends  of  Jesus.  He  had  been 
with  Jesus  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration,  and 
also  in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  on  the  last 
night.  Jesus  had  given  him  a  significant  name, 
and  tradition  declared  that  to  him  Jesus  had  en¬ 
trusted  the  keys  of  the  Kingdom  of  heaven. 
Paul  on  the  other  hand  had  never  known  Jesus. 
He  was  converted  late,  and  had  a  bad  record  to 
live  down.  Up  to  the  day  of  his  death,  he  was 
hated  by  some,  suspected  by  many,  and  disparaged 
by  not  a  few.  But  notwithstanding  all  these 


HIS  GREATNESS 


373 


handicaps,  Paul  forged  steadily  to  the  front.  By 
the  mass  of  his  personality,  he  won  a  place  above 
all  others.  The  New  Testament  is  an  imperish¬ 
able  monument  of  his  greatness.  Peter  prob¬ 
ably  wrote  many  letters,  but  only  two  bearing 
his  name  succeeded  in  getting  into  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  Both  these  letters  together  do  not  equal 
in  length  one-half  of  Paul’s  letter  to  the  Romans. 
Both  are  inferior  to  the  writings  of  Paul.  Even 
John  the  Beloved  was  inferior  as  a  letter  writer  to 
Paul.  Only  one  of  his  letters  and  two  brief  notes 
were  counted  worthy  of  a  place  in  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment  by  generations  of  Christian  believers,  who 
had  many  reasons  for  placing  John  above  Paul. 
The  fact  is  indisputable  that  Paul  understood  the 
mind  of  Jesus  better  than  did  any  of  the  Twelve, 
that  he  not  only  better  understood  the  content  of 
the  Christian  message,  but  was  better  able  to  inter¬ 
pret  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  make  it  a  living  force  in 
the  hearts  and  homes  of  men.  To  Paul,  there¬ 
fore,  has  been  committed  the  glorious  privilege 
of  sitting  on  the  highest  of  the  thrones,  instruct¬ 
ing  to  the  end  of  time,  all  the  tribes  of  the  Israel 
of  God. 

What  the  second  century  did,  the  twentieth 
century  is  doing  likewise.  It  is  giving  the  su¬ 
preme  place  to  Paul.  Of  making  books  about 
Paul  there  is  no  end.  More  than  all  the  other 
characters  of  the  New  Testament,  he  provokes 
the  modern  mind  to  action.  More  books  have 


374 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


been  written  about  him  within  the  last  fifty  years 
than  about  all  the  other  apostles  combined.  When 
Barnabas  and  Paul  went  out  on  their  first  mis¬ 
sionary  journey,  men  said — “Barnabas  and  Paul,” 
but  after  they  had  worked  together  for  a  season, 
men  said — “Paul  and  Barnabas.”  When  Peter 
and  Paul  entered  on  their  great  work  of  persuad¬ 
ing  men  to  accept  Christ,  the  world  invariably 
put  Peter  first  and  Paul  second.  At  the  end  of 
sixty  generations,  it  is  Paul  who  stands  first  and 
Peter  second.  Time  is  a  sure  test  of  greatness. 
The  farther  we  get  away  from  Paul,  the  taller 
he  looms.  We  know  him  better  than  did  any  of 
his  contemporaries.  We  see  how  he  dwarfs  all 
the  men  of  his  generation,  and  also  all  the  men 
of  the  generations  which  immediately  followed. 
The  subapostolic  fathers,  Clement  of  Rome  and 
Ignatius,  Papias  and  Polycarp  and  Justin  Martyr, 
all  are  pygmies  compared  with  him.  Clement  of 
Alexandria,  and  Irenaeus,  Tertullian,  and  Cyp¬ 
rian,  were  able  and  devoted  men,  but  they  do 
not  belong  to  Paul’s  class.  The  ages  have  pro¬ 
duced  a  great  company  of  thinkers  and  heroes, 
of  saints  and  martyrs,  but  not  one  of  them  has 
been  able  to  write  his  name  above  the  name  of 
Paul.  He  has  never  been  greater  than  now.  He 
is  perennially  interesting,  because  he  is  so  alive. 
His  hot  soul  communicates  its  heat  to  us  across 
the  chilling  waste  of  nearly  two  thousand  years. 
His  words,  as  Luther  said,  have  hands  and  feet. 


HIS  GREATNESS 


375 


He  takes  hold  of  us  and  will  not  let  us  go. 
When  he  speaks  to  us,  mysterious  powers  awaken 
in  us.  He  quickens  us,  kindles  us,  arouses  us  to 
aspire  and  dream.  We  have  to  reckon  with  him 
as  a  world  force.  He  is  a  potent  factor  in  social 
evolution.  He  is  one  of  the  determining  influ¬ 
ences  in  our  Western  Civilization.  The  prints  of 
his  fingers  are  on  our  institutions.  His  ethical 
ideals  stand  in  the  market  place.  His  ideas  are 
running  in  our  blood.  He  has  woven  himself 
into  the  fiber  of  our  consciences  and  conduct. 
We  are  influenced  by  him  even  when  we  are  least 
conscious  of  him.  He  has  determined  the  history 
of  Europe  for  two  thousand  years.  The  whole 
world  would  today  be  different  had  Saul  of  Tar¬ 
sus  never  lived. 

He  was  great  in  mind.  His  intellectual  equip¬ 
ment  was  superb.  He  saw  with  extraordinary 
clearness.  His  breadth  of  vision  was  unpreced¬ 
ented.  He  also  saw  deeply.  His  eyes  pierced  to 
the  center.  He  had  insight  into  the  soul  of  things. 
He  could  unerringly  separate  the  incidental  from 
the  essential,  the  temporal  from  the  timeless.  He 
saw  the  meaning  of  Christianity,  he  saw  the  uni¬ 
versality  of  the  Gospel,  he  saw  the  greatness  of 
the  Church. 

His  heart  was  as  wonderful  as  his  brain. 
There  was  room  in  it  for  all  mankind.  He  folded 
his  sympathies  around  the  nations,  and  his  affec¬ 
tion  went  out  to  the  ends  of  the  earth. 


376 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


He  was  great  in  his  will-power.  The  tenacity 
of  his  resolution  could  not  be  broken.  He  took 
bold  and  decisive  steps  at  critical  junctures,  and 
never  receded  from  a  position  that  ought  to  have 
been  held. 

He  had  a  great  soul.  He  was  free  from  the 
curse  of  pettiness.  His  spirit  was  intense  and 
passionate.  His  devotion  was  unparalleled,  and 
his  capacity  for  sacrifice  had  no  bounds.  In 
his  ways  of  looking  at  things  and  dealing  with 
them,  in  his  patience  with  people  and  planning 
for  them,  he  had  that  largeness  which  only  the 
truly  great  possess. 

He  was  great  in  his  aims  and  his  plans.  There 
was  nothing  small  in  his  ambitions.  He  had  in 
him  the  spirit  of  a  world  conqueror.  He  was 
far  greater  than  Alexander  the  Great.  He  was 
always  dreaming  of  other  worlds  to  conquer. 
Nothing  less  than  the  whole  world  for  Christ 
would  satisfy  his  heart.  He  carried  in  his  eye 
Rome,  the  center  of  the  world,  and  Spain,  the 
end  of  it.  In  his  imagination,  he  could  see  every 
knee  bending,  and  every  tongue  confessing  that 
Jesus  is  Master  indeed. 

Great  in  his  character,  he  is  equally  great  in 
his  achievements.  He  is  the  Christian  Hercules, 
and  his  labors  are  so  varied  and  wonderful,  that 
we  sometimes  lose  the  man  in  the  blaze  of  the 
glory  of  the  things  he  accomplished.  It  was  he 
who  lifted  the  Christian  religion  out  of  its  Pales-* 


HIS  GREATNESS 


377 


tinian  cradle,  tore  away  its  swaddling  clothes,  and 
trained  it  to  walk  along  the  highways  of  the  Ro¬ 
man  Empire.  It  was  he  who  clipped  the  shell, 
and  set  the  imprisoned  eagle  free.  It  was  he  who 
lit  the  first  Christian  lamp  in  the  palace  of  the 
Qesars.  It  was  he  who  converted  a  Jewish  sect 
into  a  world  religion.  It  was  he  who  saw  Jesus 
not  simply  as  a  Jewish  Messiah,  but  as  the  divine 
Saviour  of  all  mankind.  It  was  he  who  placed 
the  cross  of  Jesus  at  the  center  of  human  his¬ 
tory,  and  also  at  the  center  of  the  universe.  It 
was  he  who  broke  down  the  wall  of  separation 
between  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile,  and  gathered 
all  men  into  one  family  of  God.  It  was  he  who 
changed  the  religious  atmosphere  of  the  world. 
That  atmosphere  was  charged  with  legalism  and 
ceremonialism,  and  he,  like  a  thunderstorm,  came 
sweeping  across  the  world,  and  by  the  flashes  of 
lightning  from  his  hot  soul,  he  changed  the  air 
forever.  It  was  he  who  put  the  words  upon  men’s 
lips,  which  one  hears  today  in  every  Christian 
land,  and  in  every  foreign  missionary  station. 
He  coined  phrases  with  which  Christian  men  still 
are  praying.  He  created  a  vocabulary  which  the¬ 
ologians  have  made  use  of  down  to  the  present 
hour.  He  framed  sentences  so  freighted  with 
consolation  and  hope,  that  none  better  even  now 
can  be  found  to  read  beside  the  open  grave.  He 
penned  paragraphs  so  beautiful  and  with  such 
healing  in  them,  that  they  will  be  read  in  the  pub- 


378 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


lie  worship  of  Christian  congregations  to  the  last 
day.  He  is  the  only  man  in  history,  who  has 
written  words  on  a  level  with  the  words  of  Jesus. 
In  the  great  crises  of  our  life,  we  can  pass  from 
the  words  of  Jesus  to  the  words  of  Paul,  with¬ 
out  feeling  we  are  coming  down.  When  we  read 
the  highest  paragraphs  in  the  greatest  of  his  let¬ 
ters,  we  find  it  easy  to  believe  that  men  can  be 
inspired  by  God. 

His  greatness  is  seen  again  in  the  universality 
of  his  appeal.  He  attracts  and  satisfies  widely 
differing  types  of  men.  He  has  been  the  patron 
saint  in  monasteries,  and  mystics  have  claimed 
him  as  a  brother.  Puritans  have  placed  them¬ 
selves  under  his  banner,  feeling  that  he  is  the 
greatest  of  all  Puritans.  High  church  men  have 
found  in  him  one  of  their  boldest  defenders,  and 
Quakers  have  loved  him  because  of  his  emphasis 
on  the  light  within.  Apocalyptists  have  found  in 
his  letters  the  food  which  their  souls  craved,  and 
practical  reformers  who  care  nothing  for  Apoca¬ 
lypses  have  been  sure  he  stood  by  their  side.  Mis¬ 
sionaries  have  seen  him  going  on  before  them, 
heartening  them  by  his  intrepid  example,  and  in¬ 
valids,  shut  in  from  the  world,  have  found  him 
by  their  bedside  making  it  easier  to  endure.  The 
theological  mind  has  reveled  in  his  reasonings 
and  theorizings,  and  the  ethical  culturist  has  con¬ 
fidently  quoted  him  as  a  master  in  the  realm  of 
duty.  Reactionaries  and  worshipers  of  the  status 


HIS  GREATNESS 


379 


quo  have  fallen  back  on  him  for  authoritative 
permission  to  remain  where  they  were,  and  pro¬ 
gressives  and  radicals  have  always  heard  him 
urging  them  to  push  forward.  Often  has  he  been 
called  the  “Apostle  of  Progress.”  He  was  so 
great  that  he  could  assimilate  all  that  was  best 
in  the  thought  of  his  age,  and  appropriate  for  his 
own  uses  whatsoever  was  lovely  and  of  good  re¬ 
port.  He  gathered  all  the  wisdom  of  his  time 
into  the  service  of  Christ.  It  is  because  he  is  so 
rich  in  his  humanity,  and  so  wealthy  in  ideas, 
that  every  one  can  find  in  him  whatsoever  he 
needs.  Because  of  his  greatness  he  becomes  all 
things  to  all  men. 

We  can  judge  of  his  greatness  by  the  great 
men  who  have  kindled  their  torch  at  his  fire.  It 
was  he  who  converted  Augustine  and  made  him 
the  greatest  of  all  the  theologians.  It  was  he  who 
broke  the  chains  of  Luther  and  made  him  the 
greatest  of  all  the  Reformers.  It  was  he  who 
kindled  the  heart  of  Wesley  and  made  him  the 
greatest  of  all  the  Evangelists.  Augustine,  Lu¬ 
ther,  Wesley,  are  the  three  most  potent  person¬ 
alities  which  the  Church  from  the  age  of  the 
Apostles  to  the  twentieth  century  has  produced, 
all  three  of  them  giants,  and  all  three  aroused 
and  made  mighty  by  a  giant  greater  than  them  all 
— Saul  of  Tarsus.  He  has  an  amazing  genius  for 
creating  a  soul  under  the  ribs  of  death.  His 
words,  when  taken  into  the  heart,  introduce 


38o 


CHARACTER  OF  PAUL 


golden  ages.  When  he  is  forgotten,  the  world 
grows  dark.  There  is  always  a  revival  when  the 
Church  goes  back  to  him.  Whenever  the  religion 
of  law  has  crowded  out  the  religion  of  freedom, 
or  the  religion  of  form  has  smothered  the  re¬ 
ligion  of  the  spirit,  it  is  Paul  who  like  Elisha  has 
thrown  himself  on  the  dead  body  of  the  Church, 
restoring  it  to  life  again.  He  fans  into  flame  the 
slumbering  fires  of  devotion.  He  stirs  the  spirit 
of  liberty  in  hearts  which  are  slipping  back  into 
old  bondages.  His  letters  are  leaves  of  the  tree 
of  life  which  are  for  the  healing  of  the  nations. 

So  great  is  he  that  some  have  made  him  might¬ 
ier  than  he  is.  For  hundreds  of  years,  he  was 
given  credit  for  writing  the  Letter  to  the  Hebrews. 
Today  he  is  assumed  to  have  shaped  the  theology 
of  the  Fourth  Gospel.  Some  have  thought  they 
have  found  Paulinism  even  in  the  Synoptics. 
The  entire  New  Testament,  it  is  claimed,  bears 
the  impress  of  Paul’s  mind.  Some  have  gone 
so  far  as  to  assert  that  Paul  is  the  real  founder 
of  the  Christian  religion.  They  contend  that  had 
it  not  been  for  him,  there  would  today  be  no 
Christianity.  Others  are  content  to  call  Paul 
the  second  founder  of  the  Christian  Religion,  the 
originator  of  ecclesiastical  Christianity,  the  or¬ 
ganizer  of  the  Church.  By  some  he  is  unduly 
exalted.  Without  him,  they  say  Christianity  is 
incomplete.  The  full  Christian  message  is  not 
to  be  found  in  the  Gospels,  but  only  in  the  Epis- 


HIS  GREATNESS 


381 


ties.  One  cannot  know  what  Christianity  is  until 
he  sits  at  the  feet  of  Paul.  To  Luther,  the  Let¬ 
ter  to  the  Romans  was  the  chief  book  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  Reformation  was  the  work 
not  of  the  Gospels  but  of  Galatians  and  Romans. 
Others  confess  his  controlling  influence,  and  con¬ 
demn  him.  He  has  perverted,  they  say,  and  de¬ 
graded  the  religion  of  Jesus.  He  has  weighted 
Christianity  down  with  a  theology  which  makes 
it  a  burden.  He  has  darkened  the  world  by  get¬ 
ting  in  between  mankind  and  Jesus.  He  is  the 
corrupter  of  Christianity,  and  when  men  cry 
“Back  to  Jesus,”  their  aim  is  to  get  rid  of  Paul. 
A  man  must  be  great  indeed  who  can  so  impress 
the  imagination  as  to  lead  men  sixty  generations 
after  his  death,  to  exalt  him  above  the  head  even 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  ascribing  to  him  a  power 
over  the  human  mind  and  heart  not  equaled  by 
that  of  the  Master  whose  slave  Paul  claimed  to 
be.  He  is  indeed  Paul  the  Great.  His  name  is 
above  every  name  except  the  name  of  Jesus. 
Like  his  Master  he  was  great  because  he  was  the 
servant  of  all.  John  Chrysostom  wrote  a  mem¬ 
orable  sentence  when  he  said  of  Paul — “Three 
cubits  in  stature,  he  touched  the  sky.” 


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